Subject:
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Re: LEGO, kids, and how it has come to this
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 10 May 2004 12:08:49 GMT
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Viewed:
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711 times
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In lugnet.general, Ted Michon wrote:
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...a 9 year old and 10 year old came by with an unassembled 3585
Snowboard Super Pipe. Seems it was too tough for them to assemble
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!!! Perhaps this also represents just the range of kids - my son (5, at the
time) put 90% of the Mars Exploration Rover together with just the Lego
instructions (the last 10% was becasue, after something like 5 hours and it
being past his bedtime, he had to go to sleep). That a 9 & 10 year old
hadn’t hit on the idea of *following the directions* is just, well,
stunning. ‘Course, consider that the parents sent the kids down the street
instead of helping themselves (OK, I know I’m the other extreme, but I have
to ask my 6-year-old permission to execute a step on one of his models).
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I more clearly understand why LEGO has such an uphill battle in
the US and resorts to dumbing things way, way down.
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You may have a point, but I’ve always found the Lego instructions to in some
regards be the most amazing portions of the models - that you can come up with a
clear, language-independent way of directing the assembling of several hundred
individual pieces, *and* have it instantly understandable by a 5 year old, just
floors me. But I do sometimes wonder if some of my college students could do it
(frankly, I suspect some of them couldn’t).
--
Brian Davis
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: LEGO, kids, and how it has come to this
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| (...) Oh, they understood that the directions held the key, but using the directions was outside their experience. (...) We've always been happy with the LEGO directions and admire that they work across all languages, but there is a certain amount (...) (20 years ago, 10-May-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
| | | Re: LEGO, kids, and how it has come to this
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| (...) I address this in my 3D CAD class - it's very interesting to see how adults approach building instructions as users (and then creators). There's some very complex thinking going on there. Ever read any of Tufte's books on Graphic (...) (20 years ago, 11-May-04, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | LEGO, kids, and how it has come to this
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| Although the neighborhood knows there are a lot of LEGO bricks at our home and that big things go in and out from time time, we don't get a lot of walk-up traffic from curious kids. Today, however, a 9 year old and 10 year old came by with an (...) (20 years ago, 10-May-04, to lugnet.general, FTX) !
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