The Challenge: Eat or drink something today that brings back childhood memories.
At first, I had no idea how I was going to pull this one off. For the most part, I eat a lot of what I did when I was a kid. I was on the verge of grabbing a scoop of butter pecan when I stumbled upon the best find!
I ate a lot of Boston Baked Beans as a kid. I used to put them in a box and shake the box, pretending to cook the beans. It was so weird, but I was an odd kid.
It’s probably why I’m such a weird adult.
The Challenge: Buy something that captures the spirit of childhood for under $5.00 (including tax).
When I first went searching, I was looking for Play-doh or Silly Putty.
And then I discovered I could get a Nerf gun for $2.99! I was thrilled. I’ve always loved Nerf toys. I have a lot of happy memories from my tomboyish childhood and early adulthood involving Nerf toys.
I haven’t quite figured out how to fire it the way they intended it to be fired (I’m far better at launching a dart while pumping up the gun), but I’ve been having a fine time with my new toy!
One of my students came in a couple of weeks ago unable to focus on his work. He’d just come from a tennis tournament. He’d played worse than he’d played in a very long time, losing to students who weren’t at his level. This student has an older brother who went to state every year of high school, and the student’s goal for this year is to go to state for the first time. He was furious with himself.
I let him vent for a few minutes, and then I offered him some advice: Try playing for fun. Tell me what happens.
The problem with competitive people is they often lose sight of why they started doing something. They’ll take up something because it looks interesting or they just need a change of pace or they want to relax. Invariably, they’ll start measuring themself against others doing the same activity, even when there is no point to the comparison. In no time, they’ll burn out of the activity because they either feel the have no one else to beat, or because they feel they’ll never be able to beat other people.
When you always play to win, to knock down someone else, you really will lose. Even in a non-competitive activity, if you’ve become competitive, then you’ve robbed yourself of valuable learning opportunities. You’ve robbed yourself of the opportunity to make friends with a similar interest. More importantly, you’ve more than likely lost sight of why you even started the activity to begin with.
The student came in the other night, sat down in front of me, and said, “I started playing for fun this week, and my game is already getting better.” I smiled and handed him a math worksheet.
I’m turning thirty-two this weekend. I’m guessing my posts don’t really suggest that I’m over thirty. If it makes you feel any better, I honestly don’t look my age. Most people think I’m lying when I tell them how old I am. It’s actually pretty fun.
Despite my age, my guilty pleasures are really rather child-like. I play video games (which really isn’t all that youthful anymore). I watch select children’s shows (to my dismay, I’m nowhere near the oldest person in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom). I’d run around a park flying a kite or blowing bubbles, just to let off some steam. I’d rather go play mini-golf than hang out in a bar.
I’m a big kid! There are days when I try to make apologies for it, but I really shouldn’t. I’m proud of being a big kid. I’m happy to have retained that part of who I am. It’s made connecting with the kids I work with a lot simpler. Before my all-seeing eye necklace vanished, I was able to connect with almost any kid because they would look at my necklace and either accuse me of being a Yu-Gi-Oh fan or tell me how Pokemon was better. It would start a conversation that left the kid more relaxed…although I’d have been perfectly happy not having my secret society necklace tied to Charizard…
Now, my tweens and more geeky teenagers get very excited when they find out I have a DS Lite, read manga, and watch anime. (By and large, they even forgive me for not thinking Naruto is the greatest thing ever.) They’ll stop by to chat with me about the newest game they’re playing, or to give me a long list of manga titles to check out. The younger kids smile when they find out I know about certain movies and books.
I’m an adult. I’m a responsible adult. I blend in with my middle schoolers (many of them actually look down at me because they’re all taller than me). There’s never a question in my kids’ mind who is in charge, but the little ones know I’ll get down on the ground and play with them and the older ones know they can just come sit and talk to me about anything. I love having that timelessness, and I hope I never lose it.
Regardless of your age, always do something to keep in touch with your inner child. (In my case, I’m going to have to make more of an effort since one of my favorite ways to keep my inner child happy isn’t something I can just do anymore…stupid VCR. It’s be so much easier if someone would just torrent Chaotic. Really, is that too much to ask?)
Inspired by Chris Owen
As my thoughts on my future try to narrow in on a plan and a back-up plan for my career shift, I’m finding my reading shifting away from e-portfolios and adult-centric e-learning to information architecture/literacy and K-12 media and games. The more I read, the more I think about things, the longer I’m at my current job, the more I want to get involved in creating products to help students acquire and review math skills. (Actually, I want to be involved in more than just math, but it’s what’s got me fired up for so many reasons.) Right now, I’m just trying to figure out how to position myself to move into that kind of work.
It’s quite the time to try to figure out how to shift to a different informal education niche. The education industry as a whole is going through a rather large shift that may involve sliding in and out of paradigms as it grows to accommodate the accelerated changes in our society. Children are able to reach out and learn in many different ways and from many different sources. With a little training, they can learn what sources can be trusted, and what sources should either be reinforced with information from other sources or discarded altogether.
But I digress from my actual reason for writing today. My point is that children love to explore. They love to learn initially. They like to copy what grown-ups do because they know that’s part of becoming a grown-up. They mimic. They make knowledge their own. They find their own ways of doing things.
More often than not, they do it at a rate that is faster than their parents are able to adapt to the current new world order. Think about it. I’m a member of the video game generation. While my parents enjoyed sitting down to play favorite games when we first got the Coleco, I was the one who played nearly every game we had. When I was given a Nintendo right after they came out, Mom and Dad had their games, but again, I was the one who played nearly all of them. Now, they IM me for help on the computer (even though Mom is far more computer savvy than she realizes). Along with my technological toys, I had my Fisher Price kitchen so I could pretend to cook like my mom. I had my blocks so I could try to make my own buildings. I had no end of art supplies so I could create my own works of art.
I had access to toys my parents couldn’t have imagined when they were kids, but they helped me be able to successfully navigate my way into the grown-up world I had to deal with. Today’s children are now doing the same thing- except their toys are kid-friendly computers, cell phones, and other technological toys. Where I learned to design with my Crayola caddy, they’re using Crayola products that can do far more than my crayons and markers ever could. Where I learned to write BASIC programs and draw in Paint (both of which i did toward the end of elementary school), these kids are learning their way around WYSIWYG editors and kid-friendly programs to create with a computer. Many of them move on to harder programs by the end of middle school.
The kids show the grown-ups how to use the “basic” technology toys in use. It’s because it’s the world they’re growing up into. They become familiar with these now so that they can be prepared to quickly adapt to newer technologies as they develop.
Are we stealing their childhood from them by allowing them access to these types of toys, or are we allowing them to explore, to play, to discover?
Inspired by this article
This article struck a chord with me. (Get ready for hints of an article I would love to write and see published somewhere!) The article discusses the use of a multi-player online simulation environment being used as part of a university class. There are discussions rippling through the online education world about effectively using weblogs and online forums in classrooms, but this may be the earliest I’ve seen a game used this way.
The idea behind the weblogs, forums, and this game is that it allows students to literally interact with the material as well as with each other. The teacher’s role goes from being the sole point of knowledge to being a facilitator, guiding students to build personal meanings from each other’s knowledge and experience. As near as I can tell, these environments are being confined to the high school and college arenas.
However, in the case of the game, there is another principle at play. Some may call it “entertainment education”, however I prefer the term used by Montessori programs and children’s museums “play is fundamental”. Those three words are the summary of an idea that through play children learn about the world around them, complete with those personal meanings that we as teachers strive to inspire in our students.
When we play, whether in games or in leisure-time activities, we learn from those around us as well as from what we are doing. If we make a mistake in play, we take our lesson and move on. If anther makes a mistake in play, we learn from their mistake and try not to make the same mistake. It’s a freeing experience where we can make our mistakes and interact with each other in a non-threatening environment.
One of my favorite areas to note these behaviors is gaming. I grew up as a gamer and around other gamers, and I’ve recently started wondering about the effects of gaming on our learning of various skills. Personally, I learned strategy, problem solving, decision making, and dealing positively with the consequences of my decisions through video games. I’ve seen people with low social interaction skills blossom in a tradeable card game (TCG) league. I’ve watched, with utter fascination, as elementary and middle school students negotiate a fair trade of cards. I’ve often wondered, watching these children trade cards and strategies with far more grace and ease than their peers trade candy on the playground, if these children are going to grow up and enter the business world with a nicely honed set of business skills.
For all the bad press games and playing receive these days, it’s easy to overlook the good. However, it needs to be remembered that play is necessary to help instill and develop skills necessary later in life.
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