Why We Banned Legos

How can a toy cause such an uproar that they are banned? I just had to read how one of my favorite past time activities became so controversial. 

In our text, Rethinking Popular Culture and Media, the chapter titled WHY WE BANNED LEGOS, caught my eye and I so glad I read it! The authors, Ann Pelo and Kendra Pelojoaquin, discuss how an issues of power, ownership, and equity showed up in their after-school program. Like many of you the children in this group, ages 5 thru 9, enjoyed playing with Legos. As they played a "Legotown" emerged and children began to decide what building were included, the features, and sizes. What also emerged were positions of power, who could have the "best" pieces, the largest buildings, and ownership of those buildings. Younger children were left out and those who couldn't get the pieces they needed eventually stopped playing. The negotiations and conflicts created conversations of social power and ownership that mirrored those of a class based, capitalist society. (p.52) 

Then came Legoland's downfall.  Another group that uses the after-school space had accidentally demolished Legotown. The children were devastated! This was the opportunity for the adult staff to examine the issues that had arose during construction and discuss if there was a way to bring forward the issues in a way that would get the children to see what the issues were and create a new set of rules that worked in a more equitable way.

Teachers discussed their own beliefs and experiences with wealth or lack of, private ownership, and distribution of resources. They came up with a way to have the children learn about what power looks like. Teachers devised a game that created a bias and let the children play, then discuss how they felt. Power was given seemingly at random to certain colors of legos that had been chosen by the children. Those with the most points made the rules for exchanging the legos. The point was to collect as many points through the exchange and then get to make the rules. Through their own actions and creation of rules around the exchange of the Legos, some student held power longest, some complained that they would never be able to negotiate for power even with some balanced rules, while others just gave up. Children were able to discuss their feelings and beliefs about who has power and what it means to have ownership. Wonderful discussion came up through this process around fair distribution of resources and power. This "game" was taken from an approach the teachers had learned from a school in Reggio Emilia, Italy. "We weren't working from a carefully sequenced lessons on ownership, resource sharing, and equity. Instead, we committed to growing an investigation into these issues, one step at a time."(p.55)

Through this explorative method, the children's collective voices created a system for the usage of the Legos that was fair and equitable. The teachers gave the children the opportunity to  see the ways systems can be biased and to learn about their beliefs and explore the ways that they can change those systems. 

Who would have though of Legos as a tool for social justice learning? 

Here is an article on how the Lego corporation is promoting diversity and inclusion.