I have an iPhone I bought the summer of 2011 for its better camera and larger memory size. I was moving my airstream, my dog and my scant belongings from NYC, back home to California, so I wanted to take a lot of pictures of this epic roadtrip. I didnt want to buy a separate camera, so I decided to upgrade my first iPhone when the iPhone 4G came out. When the first iOS update asked to be downloaded, it came with the controversy of losing Google maps as a result. I was furious at the aspect of having to use the less wonderful “apple map app” and refused to update my phone. As I saw no immediate consequences of having denied Apple’s commands on me, I continued to ignore the notices to update my phone. It is now the fall of 2014 and x amount of ignored iOS updates later, my phone is starting to “die.” Not in a real way, because the structural design of the iPhone is quite robust. It is more like my phone is getting senile and we can’t do the things we used to be able to do together. I sense the end is near for our kind of relationship, and just in time for the new iPhone 6, which I was reminded of this past weekend when I saw lines of people outside of my local Apple store.
The kind of consumer frenzy that inspires humans to stand in line for hours in order to give someone money for something non-essential to life, has always confused me. There was a stranger juxtaposition that caught my eye that day, however. A few feet from the line snaking out of the Apple store, a mother was sitting on the sidewalk with a toddler in a stroller and a young girl, holding a sign that read “I lost mi job” (yes she spelled my in Spanish)… “I have three children, please help.” Single mothers make up a significant portion of those in poverty, so I am guessing she really did need money and food for her three children. Thankfully someone agreed, and had bought the little family take out pizza, which they were enjoying. The whole scene was confusing to me and I was inspired to write this blog in hopes of making sense of our current economy and how the maker movement presents us with a potential cure for what seems like an endless problem.
The Pedagogy of Consumerism
We are taught (though not always directly, more often just by example behaviors) by schools, parents, and perhaps most powerfully, the media, that newer is better! This is the root of planned obsolescence to generate revenue indefinitely, AKA our current model of economics. This is the unfortunate story of stuff, a term by Annie Leonard, filmmaker, activist, and creator of a nationally acclaimed documentary on the lifecycle of the products we sell and buy. Those that work for some companies wishing to sell their products to the same customers time after time are dealing with artificial constraints in their design process. If a product is going to generate revenue, it must find a way to be purchased more than once…therefore its very design can not be based on sustainability. We all know this is bad for the environment, but we are also taught that garbage is dirty stuff. While we may sympathize with those who live in such poverty, that garbage is their only option for food and other materials, we rarely deeply empathize.
Two books that have informed my teaching and changed my perspective on almost everything, are David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell and The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holliday. These books have re-focused my attention on our society’s forward march towards greater comfort and convenience, parodied best I think by the slightly terrifying Disney-Pixar version of a future human society as seen in Wall-E. These authors also remind us that being resourceful is a state of mind. It is a What if/I don’t know mindset, that can be the product of desperation, a refusal to go down without a fight, or built into the everyday experience of individuals who are unable to purchase new things and must make due with the refuse of others. One of my favorite stories highlighting the beauty of this kind of resourcefulness, comes from the children living in a Paraguayan slum who learn to play music using instruments made from trash.
Maybe we need to teach the value of scarcity and discomfort in our classrooms more. If so, how can our curriculum rebrand scarcity and discomfort, such that resourcefulness and creativity are valued over brand names? I believe the maker movement has the potential to answer these questions. Makers have the ability to redefine the term wealth to focus on quality of life, rather than socially agreed upon symbols of wealth and success, such as new products. Makers also pride themselves on creating versus consuming, therefore a maker classroom can be an incubator for thinking differently about the world in many ways, beginning with how we view our natural resources.
Scarcity as Constraints
My first experience with “teaching” scarcity came out of a mistake. You know, one of those teaching moments when you judge youself for not being prepared enough for your students? I’m talking about the day you run out of glue for the hot glue guns or duct tape and a child is left stumped on how to finish a project without it. The first time this happened in the iLab I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I guess you will have to engineer a solution now to attach those two pieces,” and out of that challenge came many inspiring and creative methods to attach two materials together. Now I have a hard rule: Any prototype not made of paper or cardboard can not be constructed with hot glue or duct tape. Having small constraints like this has led to a world of creative problem solving that can highlight the individual solution brainstorming potential of each student in unexpected ways.
Like all real learning, making is a messy, sometimes tear-filled process that can reward the maker with a sense of competence and pride when given the time and freedom to fail. It is also an opportunity to see available resources in a new light and to redefine garbage. Two of my colleagues can provide a more intentional and beautiful example of teaching the beauty of resourcefulness through the lens of a science and art collaboration they prototyped last year. In an effort to show how found objects, and unused items like old bikes could be upcycled into a working musical instrument and piece of art, Hillbrook teachers Jenny Jones and Kristen Engineer spent weeks with their 3rd grade building these creations and constructing musical pieces on their new instruments. This applied science of sound and art project was a highlight for the school and it has inspired me to focus on an upcycling/design thinking challenge this spring with my fifth grade.
Like the idea of teaching scarcity? Please send me examples of your favorite up-cylcing projects! Lets share ideas.
Works Cited
1. Gladwell, Malcolm. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.
2. Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.