Tinkering Quotes

“If you tell somebody something, you've forever robbed them of the opportunity to discover it for themselves.”
― Curt Gabrielson, Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff

“From the dawn of time, whenever humanity has wanted to know more, we have achieved it most effectively not by removing ourselves from the world to ponder and theorize, but rather by getting our hands dirty and making careful observations of real stuff. In short, we have learned primarily by tinkering.”
― Curt Gabrielson, Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff

“The value of the student’s question is supreme. The best initial response to a question is not to answer it, per se, but to validate it, protect it, support it, and make a
space for it. Like a blossom just emerging, a question is vulnerable and delicate. A
direct answer can extinguish a question if you’re not careful. But if you nourish the
blossom, it will grow and give fruit in the form of insight as well as more questions.
In short, a question needs to be nurtured more than answered. It should be given
center stage, admired, relished, embraced, and sustained.”
― Curt Gabrielson, Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff

“Finally, don’t forget that what you want to see happen is thoughtful tinkering. You want to see kids thinking about what they’re tinkering with. I assume
that eventually, every kid will do this thinking, but it’s good to make a conscious
effort to get them to make a conscious effort to learn as they tinker. “Conscientization” was Paulo Freire’s word for a different but related process. Here,
what you want is for kids to become conscious of how they are learning, what there is to learn, and what they know already. Once they ’ve got this ability,there is no stopping their self-education.”
― Curt Gabrielson, Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff

“Assembly-line instruction is what hap-pens in many schools. Learning is separated from productive activity. Kids are separated from families and most other adults and have little agency to decide how
and when they’ll plug into the learning process. The content is decided by experts
far removed from the community. Kids may have no idea why they’re learning this
content, nor any idea how to apply it, but the broader society has deemed it important. Students are expected to ingest the content and later they are sorted ac-cording to how accurately they can parrot back this content on exams.”
― Curt Gabrielson, Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff

“Your kids will not be stepping from or into a vacuum of culture when they
enter your tinkering space. As Rogoff writes, learning often happens by means of
“transformative participation in shared socio-cultural endeavors.” That means you’ll
see kids change and grow as they participate in your little community of tinkerers.
Linda Polin similarly maintains that your kids will learn “through a process of en-culturation into a slowly but constantly evolving practice.” Your tinkerers will learn
stuff as they become familiar with the norms of your tinkering environment, which
is also constantly updating, if you will, in response to them.”
― Curt Gabrielson, Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff

“Don’t be surprised if you open up one of these references and find your eyes crossing at the
site of what appears to be a completely separate language: “transformative enculturation
through legitimate peripheral situated participation in a practice community…” It may inspire
you to reject it all outright. But also don’t forget the words of Kurt Lewin: “There’s nothing more
practical than a good theory!” And know that whatever happens in a given educational situation, it’s following someone’s theories and beliefs, conscious or not. Thus, it’s better to think
about it and make sure it makes sense. Then get back to the tinkering.”
― Curt Gabrielson, Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff