“Don’t play with those matches!” – is something we all heard as kids, despite the fact that all we ever wanted is to make the wooden stick produce flames as if by magic. Gever Tulley believes that experiments such as these enrich our childhood and teach us how the world functions.
Gever is the founder of the Tinkering School – a week long, sleepaway summer camp for children, where kids learn by doing. Some of the projects built by students include a three-story tree house and a roller coaster. Gever argues that allowing children to do things conventionally has been considered to be dangerous, but in reality it teaches them creativity and helps them explore the environment and learn how to safely function in it.
In his book 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), Gever included some of Tinkering School program’s curriculum: tree climbing, boiling water in a paper cup and deconstructing an appliance. Who doesn’t want to try these things? The book is an attempt to persuade parents who are overly protective of their children that preventing kids from doing these things suppresses their innate curiosity and sense of exploration. Gever believes that whether we consider something to be dangerous or not, it is the result of our upbringing and the influence of the society that we live in.
Gever is no stranger to TED as he has spoken at TED twice as well as at multiple TEDx events.
Gever will be coming to TEDxKraków with two of his students who will tell us about life doing dangerous things. You can learn more about Gever’s projects from their websites:Tinkering School and Brightworks.