Building blocks of capitalist oppression
Salon turned me on to this amusing—and amusingly long—article by two teachers at Seattle's Hilltop Children's Center (a private facility in the affluent Queen Anne neighborhood with a "pedagogy inspired by the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy"). They didn't like what the kids were up to with the Lego:[T]he 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."
What I relish is the seeming complete lack of recognition that only in such a society is a place named "Hilltop Children's Center" (with its abundant Lego) likely to crop up in the first place. Evidently the authors are not so troubled by the arrangements of our actual society that they would do something besides teaching a pampered proto-bourgeoisie of little white kids, but they do want to encourage an ideological purity in how those children play. First things first, I guess—the kids aren't the ones signing the checks.Here's another good snippet:
"We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes.... We should all just have the same number of pieces, like 15 or 28 pieces."Sure, collectivism hasn't worked out very well at any time since the invention of agriculture, but that doesn't mean it's not a fine goal for your local Reggio-inspired children's center.
As teachers, we were excited by these comments. The children gave voice to the value that collectivity is a solid, energizing way to organize a community — and that it requires power-sharing, equal access to resources, and trust in the other participants.
posted at 2:32 PM
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