The things necessary to raise a geek...
Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 7:54PM By David Sometimes I step back and really ask myself what makes me a geek. There are always only a few answers.
- I LOVE to solve problems.
- I feel like I'm learning something new when I have the opportunity to be creative.
- I am an unabashedly creative person, following my whims, wherever they lead me.
Without question, all of these traits came from learning when I was very young.
My dad and I played with language when I was a kid in ways that other people think are insane. He and I would pun and lampoon words, and sentences. I have great memories of this. Plus, we both tried out hand at mastering various immitations of accents from different cultures.
My friend Peter and I would build Legos until we were blue in the face. My mom promoted this by getting me building blocks, and construction kits of various kinds. Later, I would host contests to see which of the neighbor kids could build the best Lego model (I remember specifically - Star Wars Snow Speeder). After that it was building Lego Robot Arms with 4dof.
I'd sit down and visualize something I wanted to build in my mind, and then i'd start executing!
It's amazing how that skill came from two simple things: Playfullness in language, and practiced engineering skills.
Today, I apply BOTH of this skills to job every day. My responsibility is really to execute the IT tactics where our business software is concerned. I need to have an ability visualize how to get form where we are now, to where we want to be. I use what i learned in my childhood, to affect that visualization. These tactics are not always set in stone, and require that I apply a certain amount of creativity to a solution. Especially if that solution somehow does not meet our needs, once its in place.
Again, I rely upon my playfullness to find a solution that is as elegant as it can be, but also has the simplicity that is called for in our organization.
It is my belief that these types of skills are essential to being a great geek. Sure there are others, but these are a few that are important to form early on.
My company (Parents As Teachers) is hostng a series of events called family play dates. Blockfest is one of these - it helps parents learn how to engender these attributes in their child.
I think that this is critically important, as I believe that geeks are great people. If you're going to raise a kid, why not raise a geek. Fred Blassie not withstanding, we need more geeks to help us execute the tactics that history has come up with.
This family play date uses an educational curriculum that we licensed called BlockFest. Blockfest teaches Parents how to play with their children by learning about important engineering ideas, doing it in such a way that there is a great measure of creativity in this play time as well. Parents work with children and demonstrate things as simple as size and texture, all the way up to complex concepts like order of operations. (you have to build the foundation before you put the roof on)
Remember that this curriculum can be applied to children in a wide range of ages. So it is easy to hold one of these playdates, and entertain children from 4 to 42!
OK, why do i think that this is so important? It really boils down to this: We have stopped contributing scientists and engineers to our society. While we can educate them in their later years, we are not doing such a great job to cultivating them early on. The only way to fix this, is to help parents - give them tools to make learning these concepts fun AT AN EARLY AGE!
I want to encourage all my geek friends that read this blog to express interest in this event. Think of this as a way to get your kids involved in what you do at a very early age, have fun yourself, and really enjoy watching your child grow!
;)