Is Gever Tulley a parent? I don't know, but he founded Tinkering School, a program where kids build stuff using real power tools. While browsing through his new book,
Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do), I am transported to my own childhood of licking batteries, blowing up marshmallows in the microwave, and climbing trees. My friends and I used to roam around our suburban woods for hours, a little bit like a suburban version of
Lord of the Flies. How sad that kids nowadays only get to have fun on "play dates" and organized activities.
Mr. Tulley believes that children should learn by doing, and his new book is laid out like a scientific notebook: each experiment is noted (e.g., "super glue your fingers together"), and includes warnings, notes, historical facts, and a blank page of graph paper for field notes. And, of course, there is an explanation as to why a parent should let their children super glue their fingers together. What a fantastic book; I can't recommend it highly enough.