Go forth and burn ants with your magnifying glass and tings...

I came across a speaker at TED this week that was refreshing. His name is Gever Tulley, and he and his partner, Julie Spiegler, founded a school in the US that is called 'Tinkering School'
Now the bit about this that is refreshing is that Gever reckons that kids need to be allowed to play with things...that are dangerous!

Fact is, if you want your kids to make the kinds of connections that constitute creative thinking... sooner or later you pretty much HAVE to leave them in charge of things that have sharp bits. Sometimes you need to leave them in charge of things with sharp bits that have motors on them... (moving sharp bits!). I mean, it's hard to cut things without some kind of saw.

Tulley has just published a book called '50 dangerous things that every kid should do' or something like that. It's a mark of our times that such a book should be considered revelationary. It includes such things as putting a 9v battery on your tongue!..(Whoa there cowboy! Ain't that goin' just a bit too far?) and (better) 'Own a pocket knife', 'Throw a spear', 'Deconstruct an appliance', 'Drive a car', Play with Fire, 'Walk on a roof', 'Make a catapult', 'make a tin helmet from a lampshade and go out in a hail storm' etc.

While I do heartily applaud this book, (and it seems to be set to be a best seller...oh why didn't I write it?)... it makes me think that we really should be hanging our collective heads in shame that a book like this was ever even required! What happened?

Not that long ago kids were doing all this stuff anyway! Now they need a book, or more precisely their parents need a book that says it's OK for us to let our kids do things that are dangerous. Not only that, but it's OK for us to leave our kids to just tinker with stuff, for no reason at all...except for the joy of it. Actually, I say WE, but really I should point out that Amazon.co.uk don't stock it... only the US Amazon have it. (Same as the US have a different (Better) Kindle than the rest of the world have access to. Hmmm) But I digress.

So as part of my appreciation, I guided Carly in mending her puncture today. She was well chuffed...and we sorted her brakes at the same time. She had no idea that THAT was what the otherwise utterly useless talcum powder in the bathroom cupboard is for! (Actually I've got a 20kg bag of it... without scent. I use it in filler) Stuff the PlayStation and virtual reality! To quote the infamous Crocadile Dundee; 'That's not a knife... THAT's a knife!'.

Have you seen that new toy on the market? It's a 'dinosaur' skeleton thingy (plastic) with some kind of plaster cast around it. Kids are supposed to 'dig' the bones out of the plaster! ...and then what? Presumably, since they're not allowed a stick, or a hammer, or a knife, or heaven forbid.. a chisel, it's not immediately apparent WHAT they're supposed to 'excavate' with! I suppose it probably comes with a disposable plastic hammer and rubber chisel... so that it's something like as hard to get the plaster off the plastic bones as it would be to get the real thing out of granite! At what point are we going to STOP this madness and re-engage our children with the REAL world? Here's a really well written label that Gever Tulley wrote and published on the Make.com website a while ago: (click the image to zoom in)



On the subject of signs: Last week I went for an interview with Greenpeace, didn't get it, but whilst I was up town, I saw a sign that was asking for people to donate blood. I thought 'Hell, why not!' and went in. I half expected the receptionist to gush at me about what a wonderful person I am to consider giving some of my own blood, it is after all vintage stuff now-a-days, but she just told me, matter of fact to read through a card that had a list of things that might prevent me from being a suitable donor. It started off with all the stuff you'd expect, like 'have you engaged in any brown nosing lately' (something like that anyway) and 'have you been taking any drugs, prescribed or recreational' (or something like that) and then.... AND THEN...it said, 'Have you lived in the UK anytime between (something like) 1997 and 2003?' So I explained that I was a Britisher...and that I had been living there during the said time... to which she said (something like) 'Well piss off then, we don't want your stinky MAD COW infected corpuscles in here... thank you very much....SIR'

Bloody convicts!