Banning Legos
This story has been making the rounds of the right-o-sphere as an example of psycho-leftist indoctrination. And that's largely true.
But the story also illustrates how someone can identify a real problem and then graft onto it an unreal, politicized, insane solution.
The problem was this: 25 kids aged 5 to 9 were in an afterschool daycare program in a church basement. About eight kids started building a "Legotown" using Legos supplied by the program. As happens with kids, they started to create a little society — and divided up the pieces, which they "owned," began bartering for "cool pieces" of Legos, excluding some other kids, and occasionally, being bratty.
Now, if this happened back when I was a boy, the teachers would have intervened at this point — we would have been told that the Daycare program owned all the pieces, thus we should share, include the other kids and otherwise play nice. Otherwise, the Legos would have been taken away. That's it.
But we now live in an insane world, and the teachers here did nothing. Instead, they observed the kids almost as though the teachers were anthropologists. They did not see this as an opportunity to teach the kids to be good citizens, but rather an opportunity to teach the kids about the evils of private ownership and the virtues of collectivism.
Poor kids.
Anyway, the teachers in this case did nothing. They observed the kids, wrote down their conversations, conversed, met, and wondered, "What shall we do?"
Then fate intervened. Legotown was destroyed by accident. Other kids from a different program in the church basement were playing and scattered the pieces.
And at the point, the teachers took away the Legos and demanded the students ... well, go read it. it's a mixture of obvious common sense with total lunacy.
***********
Now, the point the staff (and now the indoctrinated kids) were missing is this: Legotown was NEVER about private property. Private property would be the lesson if the kids' bought Legos with their own money (let's say it's earned somehow through the kids' own efforts) and used them in Legotown. Or if the kids brought their own Legos from home and then wouldn't let the others' play with them. At which point, the teacher would tell the bratty kids to keep their toys at home if they don't want to share.
What we had here, which would be obvious to anyone over 60, is that the kids were declaring ownership over the public commons. And in public spaces and with public stuff, we share. It's not a lesson in communism; it's a lesson in citizenship.
AAARGGHH! WHY DO I EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS STUFF?
[Shakes head, walks away].
But the story also illustrates how someone can identify a real problem and then graft onto it an unreal, politicized, insane solution.
The problem was this: 25 kids aged 5 to 9 were in an afterschool daycare program in a church basement. About eight kids started building a "Legotown" using Legos supplied by the program. As happens with kids, they started to create a little society — and divided up the pieces, which they "owned," began bartering for "cool pieces" of Legos, excluding some other kids, and occasionally, being bratty.
Now, if this happened back when I was a boy, the teachers would have intervened at this point — we would have been told that the Daycare program owned all the pieces, thus we should share, include the other kids and otherwise play nice. Otherwise, the Legos would have been taken away. That's it.
But we now live in an insane world, and the teachers here did nothing. Instead, they observed the kids almost as though the teachers were anthropologists. They did not see this as an opportunity to teach the kids to be good citizens, but rather an opportunity to teach the kids about the evils of private ownership and the virtues of collectivism.
Poor kids.
Anyway, the teachers in this case did nothing. They observed the kids, wrote down their conversations, conversed, met, and wondered, "What shall we do?"
Then fate intervened. Legotown was destroyed by accident. Other kids from a different program in the church basement were playing and scattered the pieces.
And at the point, the teachers took away the Legos and demanded the students ... well, go read it. it's a mixture of obvious common sense with total lunacy.
***********
Now, the point the staff (and now the indoctrinated kids) were missing is this: Legotown was NEVER about private property. Private property would be the lesson if the kids' bought Legos with their own money (let's say it's earned somehow through the kids' own efforts) and used them in Legotown. Or if the kids brought their own Legos from home and then wouldn't let the others' play with them. At which point, the teacher would tell the bratty kids to keep their toys at home if they don't want to share.
What we had here, which would be obvious to anyone over 60, is that the kids were declaring ownership over the public commons. And in public spaces and with public stuff, we share. It's not a lesson in communism; it's a lesson in citizenship.
AAARGGHH! WHY DO I EVEN HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS STUFF?
[Shakes head, walks away].