Lego blocks can serve as a
rudimentary metaphor for all the higher
creative processes, such as
writing or
musical composition, pretty much
anything. The
process is the same. You have your
blocks:
words,
notes, a palette, whatever, and you
assemble them into a
cohesive unit,
a work of art.
When I was a
child my parents were very
thrifty. My Dad especially. He loved
yard sales and
flea markets. In a way, I think my
mental development benefited quite a bit by this.
When I got
legos, I never got them in neat little boxes or sets, from
Toys R Us, I got them in big plastic bags, a
clinking,
plastic miscellaney. Eventually, I had my own
phat cardboard box, full of them. They came in many
colors and
sizes. I even had a few of the flat
green lawn pieces,
wot pass for lawns in the
mysterious,
atari-
resolution land of
lego.
I loved them. I made
houses,
spaceships,
castles,
bridges, and many
structures that
defied classification. I found a
beauty in the
simple,
logical configuration of the blocks, and was amazed that so many
different things could be built out of such a small assortment of
pieces. And, of course, they were obviously
superior to other blocks, since accidentally bumping my
creations didn't spell the
end for them.
Later, when I'd already been playing with them for
years, I learned that they most commonly came packaged in boxes, with the
pieces required to
build one thing and step by step
instructions for
building it. It didn't make much
sense to me; following
instructions was for
grown-ups.
When you
consider that the
mind is very
malleable early in
life, it's easy to understand how constant
exposure to a certain way of doing things will
influence you as an
adult. If you play the
piano all through
childhood, you'll be better than if you never played it. If you have
talent behind you, you might even become a
musical genius.
The
creative process works this way, too. If you give a child a bunch of different stuff and say, "build something". And the child does it repeatedly, then he should enjoy a
greater ease with
creativity later in
life. He will be more inclined to be
open-minded, and think on his own terms.
However, if you do the same thing, providing precise
instructions, and tell the kid, "this is the right way, do it like this", you'll probably encourage poor
waif to have others think for him.
Many
public schools teach that there is one
right way to do certain things which can be done a million different ways, simply because it's easier for the
teacher to grade the
child when there's only one correct
response. This is done quite often in
mathematics, for instance.
Such
teaching may prove
detrimental to the creative process, and
ultimately, result in something of an
automaton, who, although talented and skilled, simply obeys without
question.
Now why would the
government want that?