Funky Diagram Part 3: How to Think On Your Feet

Alrighty then, we're on to Part 3 of the Diagram. As a refresher, it looks like this:




Part 3 is terribly, terribly important because it is all about experiments and surprises. These days it seems all we want is the RIGHT answer. We want to be RIGHT all the time. Kids in school are supposed to learn to do things right so they can pass tests. Problem is, often there is more than one way to be right, or the right answer doesn't become clear immediately.

I worry that this has become too all-or-nothing. Galileo didn't do everything perfectly the first time. A lot of Leonardo's inventions were kind of weird. The lightbulb, the computer, recorded sound - nothing came without lots of experiments. In fact, here's an article about the earliest known experiment in recording sound that just got discovered. It is really cool.

I've watched a lot of kids have a really love/hate relationship with the eraser end of their pencil. In fact, when the eraser gets involved, most of the time that kid is not too happy. In fact, I've worked with a class for an hour or more only to find that one or two kids still have blank sheets because they've drawn - and then erased - any number of drawings.

Here are a couple reasons why:
1. The eraser sometimes means failure. You didn't draw it right, so you have to erase. Only people who mess up HAVE to erase.
2. The eraser is being used to obliterate a "bad" drawing. You must wipe the whole thing off the paper so it never happened.

Thinking on your feet means being willing to experiment and to be surprised. An eraser can be used to make smudges, or to draw in reverse on a white board. They can also be stuffed into pencil sharpeners, but that's a different story.

So, I try to get kids to think before they erase. Can you set the drawing aside and come back to it? What's the real reason for erasing? At least by asking you can find out more about how you feel about what you're drawing -- good or bad.