"Let's not go to Hilltop Children's Center. It is a silly place."
Posted on 03/27/2007 6:03:10 AM PDT by Uncledave
Banning Legos And building a world where “all structures will be standard sizes.”
By John J. Miller
Perhaps you’ve heard about the schools that have banned tag. Or dodgeball. Or stories about pigs.
If so, you won’t be surprised to hear that the Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle has banned Legos.
A pair of teachers at the center, which provides afterschool activities for elementary-school kids, recently described their policy in a Rethinking Schools cover story called “Why We Banned Legos.” (See the magazine’s cover here.)
It has something to do with “social justice learning.”
My vision of social justice for children of elementary-school age is as follows: If you’re tagged, you’re it; if the ball hits you, you’re out; and pig stories are fun, especially when told over microwaveable hot dogs.
But I try to keep an open mind, so I read the article on why Hilltop banned Legos.
As most aficionados know, Legos are made by a Danish company. The company name comes from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means play well. “Lego became a national treasure and one of the strongest brands in the toy industry,” wrote The Economist last year. “Its colorful bricks are sold in over 130 countries: everyone on earth has, on average, 52 of them.”
In their Rethinking Schools article, teachers Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin describe how the kids at Hilltop built “a massive series of Lego structures we named Legotown.” I sensed that something was rotten in the state of Legotown when I read this description of it: “a collection of homes, shops, public facilities, and community meeting places.”
My children have spent a large portion of their young lives playing with Legos. They have never, to my knowledge, constructed “community meeting places.” Instead, they make monster trucks, space ships, and war machines. These little creations are usually loaded with ion guns, nuclear missiles, bunker-busting bombs, force-field projectors, and death-ray cannons. Alien empires have risen and fallen in epic conflicts waged in the upstairs bedrooms of my home.
Perhaps kids in Seattle, under the careful watch of their latte-sipping guardians, are different. But I don’t think so.
At Hilltop, however, the teachers strive to make them different. “We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity,” write Pelo and Pelojoaquin. “We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children’s understandings from a perspective of social justice. So we decided to take the Legos out of the classroom.”
The root cause of Hilltop’s Lego problem was that, well, the kids were being kids: There were disputes over “cool pieces,” instances of bigger kids bossing around little ones, and so on.
An ordinary person might recognize this as child’s play. But the social theorists at Hilltop saw something else: “The children were building their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys — assumptions that mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.”
Pelo and Pelojoaquin continue: “As we watched the children build, we became increasingly concerned.”
So they banned the Legos and began their program of re-education. “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation,” they write.
Instead of practicing phonics or memorizing multiplication tables, the children played a special game: “In the game, the children could experience what they’d not been able to acknowledge in Legotown: When people are shut out of participation in the power structure, they are disenfranchised — and angry, discouraged, and hurt. ... The rules of the game — which mirrored the rules of our capitalist meritocracy — were a setup for winning and losing. ... Our analysis of the game, as teachers, guided our planning for the rest of the investigation into the issues of power, privilege, and authority that spanned the rest of the year.”
After “months of social justice exploration,” the teachers finally agreed it was time to return the Legos to the classroom. That’s because the children at last had bought into the concept that “collectivity is a good thing.” And in Hilltop’s new Lego regime, there would be three immutable laws:
All structures are public structures. Everyone can use all the Lego structures. But only the builder or people who have her or his permission are allowed to change a structure.
Lego people can be saved only by a “team” of kids, not by individuals.
All structures will be standard sizes.
You can almost feel the liberating spirit of that last rule. All structures will be standard sizes? At Hilltop Children’s Center, all imaginations will be a standard size as well: small.
"Never once did they build a community center, however, my ten year old once re-enacted Picketts Charge in Gettysburg with Lego's"
my boy was obsessed with Pickett's charge for a spell.
We took him to Gettysburgh a few times.
You can find Pickett and his men in Hollywood cemetary in Richmond.
"Let's not go to Hilltop Children's Center. It is a silly place."
We did the same last summer. I'll be in Richmond in May but since I'm there for the NASCAR race, probably won't have time to visit the cemetary.
One of his favorite movies in Gettysburg. At 10, I think he's a little to young to slog through The Killer Angels, but soon he will.
Our sons sound very similar.
Mine is almost 14 now and doesn't obsess over the Civil War anymore - although I still think he'd probably enjoy more trips to Gettysburgh.
We have family in Richmond and my cousin took us through Hollywood one day...I was amazed at the history there.
Jefferson Davis and his family. James Munroe (very impressive grave).
Picket and his men.
there's a huge pyramid where they have a mass grave for confederate soldiers.
You are very observant. Liberalism today is as much a faith as Islam. Both guard their beliefs zealously and will have no other Gods before them. They both seek to punish heresy and apostasy. They both reject reason in favor of faith alone, and deny individual liberty in favor of group needs. At the moment, as constrained by our Constitution, Liberals use the tools of ridicule, social control, legislation, and judicial fiat to accomplish their ends. Because Islamic powers have no equivalent constraint, they tend to just use brute force.
Oh puh-LEEZE. What little kid doesn't go through the big "ME" or "MINE" stage?
Sign me -
MOM OF THREE
Lordy!!
Ann Pelo, Mentor Teacher
Ann delights in young children. She has taught at Hilltop since 1992, where she is nourished by her co-teachers' commitment to growth and challenge, by children's passionate relationships, and by families' deep commitment to their children. Ann is particularly interested in anti-bias and peace education and in the philosophy of the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. She earned a master's degree in Child Development and Family Studies from Purdue University. Ann is co-author, with Fran Davidson, of That's Not Fair: A Teacher's Guide to Activism with Young Children, published by Redleaf Press and many articles about Early Childhood Education….
Pelo and Pelojoaquin? "Pelo" means "hair"
Obviously self-named Hispano-hippy Marxists.
WHAT! What idiocy! Legos fueled my creativity as a child.
We have friends in Williamsburg. I was amazed at the history in that area. Driving from DC to Williamsburg encompassed many of the battles of the Civil War. I never realzed how close everything was until that day. Unfortunatley, our May trip is going to be a quick in and out one.
Last year my son had to write a critique for one of his classes. It had been one where they had a "group project." He basically told the prof (in a very polite, but logical way) why he hated group porjects and why he would have preferred to just do the work by himself. The prof took the criticism well, and gave him an A on the critique, so I'm sure they know problems exist.
My husband's a network manager and says they're just preparing you for the endless and useless meetings you'll have to attend in the workplace. He's always amazed at the amount of time wasted by management in meetings. He's reading a book right now entitled, "Death by Meeting."
Disgusting.
I am as close to nausea as I have ever been about a posted item.
All the Indymedia codewords, and not a shred of compunction about using power over very young children to promote a totalitarian political agenda, one that is overtly aligned with the head-chopping, car-bombing savages of the Middle East. It will take a second Revolution to get rid of these evil creatures.
They are trying to control Original Sin by demonizing Legos. I would NEVER let my kids attend that school. The little boys our son grew up with who were not allowed to play with guns used their fingers.
Are salaries voted on democratically?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Can you believe anyone would actually pay to send their poor, innocent children to this laughing academy?
Even though my boys had Legos they never played with them. Everything my boys do together must have a competive edge to it. Dinner is a competition in my house, who eats more. I swear sometimes I think I should wear a black and white ref's shirt and a whistle around my neck.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.