|

The Racing Car Won!

ByBruce Sharp

Decisions of Children

A retailer wanted a morning’s activity with children.
Making children happy isn’t difficult; they love doing cool stuff. When given a choice of projects they apply assumptions passed on by their parents.
It is fun to present them with a boy’s cliché, a girl’s cliché and a gender non specific alternative. They were presented with a racing car, a money/puzzle box and a clock to decorate.

Clock

Two layers of plywood followed by busy decorating for fingers that like fussing with detail- on the day, we only made two.

Money/Puzzle Box

The children weren’t interested. Their assessment was clear and final. Oh well. There is no photo to show. It won’t happen again! BUT, the racing car, that was another matter…!

Racing Car

Here is the winner of the day, everybody wanted to make one. Boys and girls all wanted to take one home.
For my part, I don’t think the success of this car had anything to do with gender bias. A lot of my energy had gone into making nice wheels. Each had been shaped with a clever tool on the drill press and when put on a nicely shaped car body the end result was pretty pleasing. Boys made it, then raced them around the floor. Girls enjoyed the act of craft.
A pyro pen is a great tool. Picking one up for the first time is an act of fascination. Children are drawn to it like moths to a light.
 

In Conclusion

This bunch of kids drove themselves to my best design and my best work- the cool stuff. Gender based clichés had no sway. Parents, kids and I all giggled together. We were together. It was a good morning! 

Similar Posts

  • |

    Chairs and Table

    ByBruce Sharp

    Fairy Furniture Grand daughters leave grandpas with the privilege of doing cool stuff. Here is the furniture with which she can join Alice at afternoon tea in the backyard. Even though this is made from decking boards, a life outdoors will see the timber eventually split and fall apart. So, a decision has to be…

  • |

    Clock of Success

    ByBruce Sharp

    The greatest gift from a teacher is success, for success fertilises the desire for more success and nourishes self esteem. A student, typically, is the hardest assessor of their own work. So, the creation of work where students feel their own success is the art of teaching. This piece of work began with the donation of…

  • |

    Not a Roubo Bench- workbench for a small space

    ByBruce Sharp

    A workbench is a personal statement. In a concrete way it expresses needs, resources and interests of the person who made it. Many boasts are to be found that an author/woodworker has intelligently created superior responses to the needs of a workshop. Here is another entry into that crowded arena. However, what follows makes no…

  • | |

    Spinning Top

    ByBruce Sharp

    The act of making is its own end! My friends may comprehend nothing of the object they have created, but are always richer for having been engaged in the act of making it. With little prior experience of working in disability services, I had no means of judging the progress of a lesson. More experienced people than…

  • |

    Serving Tray

    ByBruce Sharp

    Good Ideas Don’t Need to be Complicated Serving Tray For an object to complete the journey from initial musings to touchable reality requires a certain fidelity, on my part, to the original idea. Discouragements take the form of excessively complex prototypes. It is difficult to let simplicity rule. The journey of the serving tray couldn’t be shorter….