My reaction to "tinkering school"

Gever Tulley has a very interesting approach to learning. He has created "tinkering school," a brainchild of his that focuses on letting children teach themselves. He provides guidance and help when necessary, but tries to let his students learn from their own mistakes. There are no tests, no specific instructions, or even any assignments, however, the kids still seem to learn a lot.

I don't really have much distrust or dissatisfaction with the usual American standards of education, but I think that Tulley is really onto something here.  Kids, especially young ones, love to dream and create. Expressing yourself is hardly a challenge when you are a youngster, but sometimes it can be a challenge to find the correct venue for doing so. By letting children work with real tools and build real creations, Tulley is making their daydreams into reality.

Oddly enough, my favorite thing about Tulley's method of teaching is that he celebrates failure. One of the very few gripes that I have with the way that I grew up was that I was taught without the possibility of failing. Growing up with things such as No Child Left Behind and summer school has reinforced into my generation the philosophy that you cannot fail. By allowing his students to fail, Tulley is teaching them to fix the problems with their project and learn from their own mistakes. Failures can be celebrated when they inevitably lead to success, and makes those successes feel much more deserved.

all in all, I don't feel that Tulley is advocating this type of education for all venues, but it sure seems to work for him. Seeing all of the cool contraptions that his "elementary age" students were able to create continually made me think "oh wow, that's cool" and many times, even "there's no way that I could build that, and I'm an adult!"