Arts & Ammo

Nuts and Bolts

Most readers will recognize John Ratzenburger as the actor who played Cliff Clavin on the TV series Cheers. Cliff had an opinion on everything and virtually no knowledge to back it up. Now, Ratzenburger is a spokesman for the Nuts Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation, and we need to put aside any suspicions we may have that “Cliff” doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

The premise is simple. Kids today spend far too much time playing with digital devices and living in a virtual world and not enough time fiddling with things. And fiddling with things, real things that have utility, is essential to developing certain critical skills. Here’s what Ratzenburger says:

We owe our collective greatness, in large measure, to the greatness of individuals whose curiosities and fascinations compelled them to imagine and then build what had never been imagined and built. And they were capable of that, thanks to the seeds planted by their own hands as young tinkers.

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But the consequences of kids being unable to work with their hands are profound — and not in a good way. As a recent Stanford University study reported, future engineers who are great in physics and calculus but can’t think in new ways about old objects are doomed to think in old ways about new objects. Their engineering skills will be lacking in the one essential without which a background in physics and calculus is all but irrelevant: practicality. How will they stand on the shoulders of giants to invent something that has never existed?

While we chatter on about the “creative class” and its impact on society, we run the risk of creating a very passive, non-creative class capable only of observing and transmitting data. Creativity requires a lot of doing, and Ratzenburger’s foundation is addressing a real problem. Let’s wish them success.

Since this site takes a particular interest in music, I can’t help but note a musical corollary to Ratzenburger’s argument. Far too few people are learning to play instruments – fiddling of a particular kind. Kids listen to music and share music, but they are not sufficiently involved in creating music. The hands-on approach to music is the only path to a real understanding and appreciation for music.

May 13th, 2008 Posted by Fitzroy | Education, Music | no comments