Posted on 07/25/2007 7:37:07 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at rethinkingschools.org ...
“We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity,” Pelo and Pelojoaquin wrote. “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.”
So after “months of social justice exploration,” Pelo and Pelojoaquin reintroduced the Legos, but only after the children had learned that “collectivity is a good thing.” And with the return of the colorful toys came three new laws.
All Lego structures are now public structures. All kids 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, and all structures will be standard sizes.
“Our intention,” wrote teachers Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin, “was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation.”
Yes. I especially note that when the kids started building again, at first they still tried to keep their own buildings their own, but after a while they realised that if you have to build all the buildings the same, it really didn’t make any difference who built what, and they all “cooperated” building everything. The teachers thought that was a triumph, but it was actually capitulation and resignation.
If they had had more parts for the little people (hats, etc.) what they might have seen is everybody STOP building buildings and spending all their time trying to make their PERSON the best person in the lot.
I solved this problem at my house by buying a few hundred thousand lego pieces. Now there is no such thing as a “rare, special” piece, and we can all build whatever we want.
What a pantload this is!!!!
The kids with the vision to build Legotown became the bad guys of course because they assumed that that they, the builders, would reap a reward for their vision, hard work and industriousness.
But no!!! We can’t have kids rise to their level of potential. Others not so gifted might suffer from self esteem problems. So let’s mess with their heads, and go through a tortuous mental process to suck all of the individuality and creativity out of the builder bees in the hive.
The whole problem is that the number of Legos was rationed to begin with, like in all Communist societies. The kids came up with their own system for valuing and apportioning building materials—pretty good for a bunch seven and eight year olds. Instead of letting the kids go through the process and re-build and let their creativity soar, oh no, the ever so bright Marxist teachers had to show them the error of their ways.
People like these teachers have never achieved anything, and can only reduce those who produce down to the level of the lowest common denominator.
Anyone who loves their child needs to take their kid out of this Marxist inspired, and run like hell away from this God awful place.
Communists do not allow fun.
Oh, I know the main story is true, but the storyline dialog I do believe is fictitious.
mark
From what I read, it is a daycare housed in a church, not affiliated with it.
Could be. Sort of “false history” created by the Lezbo Commu-Nazis to help us all reach enlightenment.
Leggo my lego!
Praise God we can homeschool our children and keep them out of the hands of communist lesbians like this.
"Could be. Sort of “false history” created by the Lezbo Commu-Nazis to help us all reach enlightenment."
But my story in post Post 35 is real.
Hilltop is housed in a church, and over a long weekend, some children in the congregation who were playing in our space accidentally demolished Legotown.
Those evil Church children demolished Legotown.
I doubt any of this really happened.
They still have nine tenths as a consolation.
Ann Pelo on the military industrial complex as taught to preschoolers:
According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which oversees preschool teacher training, curriculum standards, and daycare accreditation, “That’s Not Fair! A Teacher’s Guide to Activism with Young Children” is “an exciting and informative” resource for “developing community-building, deep thinking, and partnership.to change the world for the better.”
On page 106 of the guide, co-author Ann Pelo details an activism project she initiated at a Seattle preschool after her students spotted a Blue Angels rehearsal overhead as they played in a local park. “Those are Navy airplanes,” Pelo lectured the toddlers. “They’re built for war, but right now, there is no war, so the pilots learn how to do fancy tricks in their planes.” The kids returned to playing, but Pelo wouldn’t let it rest. The next day she pushes the children to “communicate their feelings about the Blue Angels.”
Pelo proudly describes her precociously politicized students’ handiwork:
“They drew pictures of planes with Xs through them: ‘This is a crossed-off bombing plane.’ They drew bomb factories labeled: ‘No.’
“Respect our words, Blue Angels. Respect kids’ words. Don’t kill people.”
“If you blow up our city, we won’t be happy about it. And our whole city will be destroyed. And if you blow up my favorite library, I won’t be happy because there are some good books there that I haven’t read yet.”
Pelo reports that the children “poured out their strong feelings about the Blue Angels in their messages and seemed relieved and relaxed.” But it’s obvious this cathartic exercise was less for the children and more for the ax-grinding Pelo, who readily admits that she “didn’t ask for parents’ input about their letter-writing - she didn’t genuinely want it. She felt passionately that they had done the right thing, and she wasn’t interested in hearing otherwise.”
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin041603.asp
The authors clearly have a political motive, not an educational one....damn, these people probably support the ACLU too.
This is yet another sign of the left and its agenda to brainwash our children.
And it most assuredly rocks!
“Splat”!!!
I wonder if the church decided to kick them out before or after the Lego incident.
king of the hill
By jove, I do believe you are correct. This article reads like something a graduate student would write in an attempt to impress her advisor.
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