Educational Beliefs
Philosophy
The principles that guide my work in maker education and constructionist learning.
My First Makerspace
Originally published in Meaningful Making, Volume 1
Written as a response to Seymour Papert's “Gears of my Childhood” for MIT's Learning Creative Learning course
Even at the age of seven, I had a makerspace. The cellar of our family home in suburban New Jersey was dark in corners and the cement floor was cold year round. But the combination of semi-discarded machines, random material selection, and my father's seldom-used tools turned this underground cavern into my own proto-fablab, a place where I was free to imagine and explore with making things, where I could tinker and create, a place where I could learn at my own pace and study in my own way.
My workshop was huge, encompassing the entire footprint of the largest house in the neighborhood. A generic wooden staircase descended into the middle of the room, splitting the floor plan into four main sections. The right side of the wall facing the base of the stairs was lined with the hot water tank and furnace that warmed the house. Mysterious noises would emanate from this area of the basement. Sometimes my brothers would cruelly turn off the switch at the top of the stairs and the only light in the room would be the flickering blue glow of the furnace reflecting on the shiny concrete floor.
“What did you make today?”
This simple question shifts the conversation from what students learned to what they created—from consumption to production. It's a question that challenges the assumption that students should be passive recipients of knowledge.
Core Principles
Constructionism
Learning is most effective when individuals are actively engaged in making tangible objects in the real world. Knowledge is not passively received but actively constructed through experience.
— Seymour Papert
Maker Empowerment
The realization that one can change the world through design and resourcefulness. Students become creators, not just consumers, of technology. This is the moment when making becomes meaningful.
Agency Over Compliance
Shifting from compliance-oriented education to agency-supportive environments where students set their own goals and manage their own learning. The goal is not obedience—it's empowerment.
Demand-Driven Learning
When students are deeply invested in a project, they naturally seek out the necessary facts, skills, and theories to complete it. Learning becomes pull, not push.
Teacher as Lead Learner
Educators don't need to be experts in every tool. They become resourceful co-learners who help students navigate inquiry. The best teachers model curiosity, not certainty.
The Problem with Traditional Education
Schools were originally designed to produce compliant factory workers. But the modern economy and the “connection revolution” have made this model obsolete.
If all students are producing the same artifact, they are following a “recipe” rather than engaging in a project. True learning happens when students pursue individual inquiries that require them to pull necessary technical skills as needed.
The goal is not compliance—it's empowerment. The ability to look at the world and say: “I can make that better.”
The Maker Solution
Maker education provides an alternative. When students have access to tools—3D printers, laser cutters, microcontrollers, sewing machines—and the freedom to pursue their own projects, something remarkable happens.
They become invested. They seek out knowledge because they need it, not because it's on a test. They iterate, fail, and try again. They collaborate and share. They take ownership of their learning.
This is maker empowerment—the realization that you can change the world through design and resourcefulness.
Words to Build By
“What did you make today?”— The question that changes everything
“Stop stealing dreams.”— Seth Godin
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”— Alan Kay
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