7/6 Rethinking Schools: Why We Banned Legos

 This is an intentionally provocative title meant to hook in the reader, the author is not truly advocating for the ban of Legos. 

The article begins by describing an after school program with 25 children ages 5-9 called Hilltop. At Hilltop, several children began creating Legotown out of the Legos the program had. There were several children who "launched" Legotown and were making the decisions related to it. Other children joined at times but were often discouraged by these core builders. After a few months of Legotown, it was accidentally destroyed over a long weekend by children attending church in the area. The children were distraught but as the teachers made suggestions for how to clean up and restart the town, the ideas of private ownership and hierarchical authority became painfully clear. The teachers met and decided to ban Legos in the wake of this realization. 

The teachers shared their decision with the students and then opened the conversation up to them. The kids who primarily created Legotown didn't agree that there was anything negative happening, even when prompted by teachers. They discussed what is fair, what is equitable, and even if those two things should be the criteria for the new Legotown. A few days later, the teachers had the kids draw what "power" looks like to them. This lead to a conversation where one student stated that power made him feel good and he liked to tell others what to do. 

From here, the teachers created new trials to interact with the Legos to consider new guidelines. The children created a set of core beliefs as well as three tenets to follow. Only then, were Legos reintroduced to the community.