LEGOS

Emily has been building with Legos almost her entire life. I’m continuously impressed by how adept she is at building things — and following directions. Almost everything she’s built using Legos has been “scripted” for her. Her Lego projects are built from Lego “kits” that have unique “bricks” molded in special shapes to produce a pretty terrific looking finished product. Most of Emily’s projects have been fairy princess castles and little houses, with an occasional car thrown in. She builds them by very meticulously following the directions provided by Lego.

A couple of weeks ago, she spent a few nights with us and one of the activities that occupied her was building with her mom’s old Legos. These were just a bunch of “bricks” in various sizes and colors. No directions. No pictures. Just bricks. At first Emily was a bit frustrated and didn’t know what to build, but very soon her imagination took off and she made some really cool stuff. It was fun to watch her figure out how make what she was thinking of. She asked that a couple of things she came up with not be taken apart, but left for her next visit.

This all got me to thinking… it seems that the imagination and creativity needed to “make” something from today’s Legos leaves much to be desired. The pre-formed pieces included in todays sets don’t allow children to think for themselves and really make something from their own imagination.

So what happened? Somewhere between when our kids played with Legos and the time our grandchildren started playing with them, the Lego company decided that kids (and adults) needed more than just their imagination — they needed directions.

I suppose this change is a marketing strategy, but I suspect that the company decided that the challenge of building something from scratch is hard. But I think by making Lego set “kits” it not only decreases creativity in the use of Legos, but across other activities as well.

I understand that the world is changing — I guess Legos must, too. But I hate to see the lives of kids today become even more structured. I agree with Albert Einstein when he said, “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”
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