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I just saw a news story about an elementary school (Hilltop Children's Center) that banned children from playing with legos.??Apparently, the students (2nd graders) were building a lego town and some of the houses were bigger than others.??Students began claiming the "best houses", which the teachers believed incorporates ?assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys, (assumptions which) mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society ? a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.?

The ban has recently been lifted, but new rules are in place.??They are, in a nutshell:

All houses will be standard sizes.??None will be bigger than the others.

Everyone owns them.

This is ridiculous.??Legos are toys, nothing more.??The idea that they represent a "capitalist society" is stupid.??What the students are doing is called 'competition'.??They're encouraged (hopefully) to do their best in life, so of course they'll strive to make the best lego house.??And since they built it, it is theirs to claim.??Everyone has the right to be proud of their accomplishments and mark them as their own.

If we start banning children from striving to be better than the rest and taking pride in their accomplishments, we destroy their self-esteem and desire to be successful.??Sure, the people they out do may feel bad, but there's nothing preventing those people from becoming the best either, except their own lack of motivation.??That's the way the world works; you want to do good, you have to work for it.

what the hell? they put a fucking BAN on legos because one kid made a bigger house and said it was his...? thats just stupid. i mean really stupid.

Such is the way of the world nowadays. Things are banned for the most trivial reasons.

Quote:This is ridiculous.??Legos are toys, nothing more.??The idea that they represent a "capitalist society" is stupid.??

Don't be so hasty. My aunt works for Lego, and they just laid off a whole lot of people, moved the American assembly plant to Mexico, and moved the Danish assembly plant to... some other European country in order to improve their bottom line. The main reason was because health insurance was so expensive. The point is, if you don't believe Legos can teach you something about capitalism, think again.

By doing that, teachers are doing the opposite of their job by denying children an opportunity to express themselves uniquely from other children. One child is going to be better at math than another, one better at spelling, one better at reading, and so on. Banning legos or instituting rules on how big houses can be isn't going to change that some kids are naturally smarter than others. What are they going to say next? That all children have to be the same size?

Quote:The point is, if you don't believe Legos can teach you something about capitalism, think again.

We're not talking about the Lego company. We're talking about the legos themselves.

It's amazing how people think they are being fair by doing this, someone is always going to better at something than another, that's just a fact. I personally think its healthy for kids to be competitive, but these rules eliminate that. Sounds like another case of school administration having their head up their arse over what they think is "best".

*pauses in her search for more of the yellowy orangish colored blocks so she can build a Renamon model to read this thread.*


They are putting rules on how big Lego houses can be!?!?!?! That is so stupid.. I remember one time we were playing with legos.. Me and a few friends were the only ones who wanted to.. so we had a lot of them... We made a house thingy big enough to actually hide someone in. Then everyone in the class wanted to play with them, but we werent done, so the teacher told them to wait because they had a chance to choose the legos too, but didn't do it.

I too play with legos, have been since I was a kid, and the idea of banning them for the reasons these teachers are saying grinds my nerves. Legos are one of the ultimate symbols of imagination. If you can imagine it, you can build it. By banning them, these teachers are in effect killing the imagination of the children they teach...and that's unforgivable.

So where is this school? I need to have a "talk" with these people. Anyone want to come with me? We need to be like those annoying parent mobs.