Why We Banned Legos

Rethinking Schools ^ | Winter 2006 | Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin

[Lorianne]

Exploring power, ownership, and equity in an early childhood classroom ___

Carl and Oliver,* both 8-year-olds in our after-school program, huddled over piles of Legos. They carefully assembled them to add to a sprawling collection of Lego houses, grocery stores, fish-and-chips stands, fire stations, and coffee shops. They were particularly keen to find and use "cool pieces," the translucent bricks and specialty pieces that complement the standard-issue red, yellow, blue, and green Lego bricks.

"I'm making an airport and landing strip for my guy's house. He has his own airplane," said Oliver.

"That's not fair!" said Carl. "That takes too many cool pieces and leaves not enough for me."

"Well, I can let other people use the landing strip, if they have airplanes," said Oliver. "Then it's fair for me to use more cool pieces, because it's for public use."

Discussions like the one above led to children collaborating on a massive series of Lego structures we named Legotown. Children dug through hefty-sized bins of Legos, sought "cool pieces," and bartered and exchanged until they established a collection of homes, shops, public facilities, and community meeting places. We carefully protected Legotown from errant balls and jump ropes, and watched it grow day by day.

After nearly two months of observing the children's Legotown construction, we decided to ban the Legos.

[Pinkbell]

I agree.

[jwh_Denver]

Cut out all the noise? Communism/socialism destroys.

[Lexinom]

Ah, another case of a discussion we should not be having.

after school program

If their mothers were at home waiting for the kids when school was out, we would not need this.

If we hadn't sent our entire manufacturing base off to China, and if companies were still headed by honest and moral people, the mothers' husbands would be earning a fair family wage such that the mother would not need to work.

And of course, if mother and father stayed married instead of playing the run-around-Sue and sleeping with whoever they crashed with in a drunken stupor the night before.

So dig a little deeper, and we'll find the root of the problem in the existence of these "centers" and the problems that instilled such a "need" in the perverted minds that created them in the first place.

Someone mentioned this is happening in Seattle? What an embarrassment. Still, what should we expect from a state whose proudest Republican is RINO Dan Evans and which elected a good Republican governor in 2004 but swore in a Democrat in 2005?

[Cacique]

btt

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin

So do Ann and Kendra have something going on?”

Don’t know. We will have to ask Nancy PELOsi.

[redgolum]

In other words.
They banned Legos (and probably all fun toys) to make the little darlings into the New Soviet Man.

[nicmarlo]

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.

It's unbelievable how the educational system is so antagonistic toward capitalism and enamored with the failed socialistic ideologies.

[SoftballMominVA]

This is a private school - parents pay thousands of dollars to send their kids here to learn this type of trash. If the parents don't like it, they can vote with their feet quite easily.

My guess is that the majority of parents sat back and agreed with the decision as they are actively creating good little socialists.

[aruanan]

Anybody who came up with groundrules like this and expected kids to follow them has never coached a 7&8 yo soccer or T-Ball team. Sounds like the scientists need to spend some time in the real world for a while before they start making observations that other people might actually act on.

No, they know human nature and they hate it, not just the ways it can go astray, but everything. Their goal, like that of those pushing the New Soviet Man and the Aryan Master Race, is to remake human nature.

[Fester Chugabrew]

I could understand banning Legos if one kept finding “cool pieces” in his cereal, or if one regularly stepped on them in the middle of the night on a hardwood floor. But these folks are slightly beyond understanding.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

You forgot another adjective to describe these women: stupid.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

She is obviously a lunatic.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

They are communists, and their favorite concept is “ban”.

[aruanan]

If the women make a moral claim that what the kids used to be doing with Legos is bad and what they're doing to reshape their attitudes toward work, collectivity, etc., is good, then are they not guilty, by setting the experiment up to begin with, of having fomented (politically) immoral behavior in the children? If, though, they respond that there is no good or bad involved, simply different choices, then are they not getting way too worked up about something on the level of preferring cabbage over carrots?

I remember once a lesson plan for Sunday school about disobedience. The teacher was instructed to bring in an interesting looking box that could easily be opened and place it on the table. The teacher was then to instruct the kids NOT to open the box and then go out of the room on some pretext and later return to ask the kids if any of them were tempted to open the box after being told not to. I thought this exercise was simply evil because it was deliberately setting the kids up to do what they were told not to do. Instead, I discussed with the class what a pathetic pantload this lesson was, what it was ineptly trying to teach, and why it was bad.

[Tax-chick]

This whole article makes my BS meter ring! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Bingo. I think the writers made the whole thing up.

[Momaw Nadon]

When Legos are outlawed, only outlaws will have Legos.

[JasonC]

I stand by my statement. I know what made the teachers. They are made out of Legos, too.

[SoftballMominVA]

Your statement indicated that you believed that this happened in a public school - it didn't. This is a private school and in reality it is an issue for the consumers of the school and not the tax paying public.

Not sure how teachers are 'made of out of Legos" so I'll just smile and let that one go right on past

[SoftballMominVA]

Have you checked to see how much parents pay for their children to attend this school? THOUSANDS of dollars. So obviously, the school has no problem engaging in the capitalistic system when it benefits them. I wonder how many poor and underprivileged children are allowed to attend free of charge - or this this indoctrination only for the select few who can afford to be indoctrinated.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I'd love to see what these morons could create if they called it a Lego Collective, and doled out the "cool pieces" only to certain elite members of the class, and gave everyone else only those lousy 1-bump Legos to build the rest of the town, and whenever they needed a 4-bump piece or a bigger block, they had to wait for weeks in a line, and then were limited to only two larger pieces at a time, etc. That'd teach the kids the real nature of collectivism, of course.