“Is that a stick? You know the rule about playing with sticks…” – parent to a child. In the YouTube vide titled, Gever Tulley Teaches Life Lessons Through Tinkering, Tulley talks about the importance of tinkering. Tulley takes us to tinkering school where kids are allowed to pick up sticks and tinker with them. To attempt to repair or improve something and they are trusted not to hurt themselves or others. There is no curriculum or tests. Students are given tools, real tools to use and tinker through a six-day immersion program.
The Goal
The goal of tinkering school is to “ensure they leave with a better sense of how to make things than when they arrived and to have a deep internalization that you can figure things out by fooling around. (Gever, 2009) All projects never turned out as planned and become at ease that every step in the project is a step closer to success. They start with sketches and plans but sometimes they just start building, no plans. Success is in the doing and failures are celebrated and analyzed. Teachers facilitate and guide toward completion. All materials are available for use and the things that they build, amaze even themselves.
Reflection
The video gave many examples of the types of projects students created such as roller coasters, tree houses, vehicles, bridges, boats and their favorite, decorating. It was awesome to see elementary level kids collaborate and create. “Building is at the heart of the experience. The experience is hands on, deeply immersed and committed to the problem at hand. (Gever, 2009) I have a stepdaughter who attends a high tech charter school in San Diego and their approach is similar to Tulley’s immersion program, it’s a project-based approach to learning. As a teacher, I understand the importance of collaborating, working with a team, finding your role and developing the ability to lead a group through these real world experiences. However, these kids will definitely be workforce ready but will they be college ready? If that’s the road they choose to take. Not everyone has to go to college but I think there needs to be a balance. College continues to be a place of higher learning through textbooks. We read, reflect through discussions or writing and practice what we learned in the near future in the field we hope to land. I personally love the project-based approach and should be included in all schools, in addition to the core subjects. Students also need to learn how to study through a variety of texts and learn through exploration.
References
Neistat, C. [CaseyNeistat]. (2012). I Love you Instagram. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com