While I’ve been on a brief social media “skunk at the garden party” hiatus, Dean Shareski <\/a>has generously filled-in by sharing his queasiness over the “viral<\/a>” Goldieblox<\/a> video<\/a> being passed around the Web. Se\u00f1or Shareski set his BS detector\u00a0 on high and has provided evidence that the “amazing” Rube Goldberg machine “made by girls” is merely a commercial for a new toy called, Goldieblox<\/a>.<\/p>\n I am shocked! Shocked!<\/p>\n Anyone who knows me knows that I love toys. I find buying them irresistible. I’ve been seeing Goldieblox at Maker Faires for more than a year, but have not bought a set because I think they lack extended play value (a term LEGO uses internally). I’m not one to get all outraged that a toy for girls is pink. Goldieblox<\/a> just hasn’t seemed very interesting to me or the girls I work with. It’s not part of my workshop road show sweeping the globe, “Invent To Learn<\/a>.”<\/p>\n It just doesn’t seem that Goldieblox<\/a> has any chance of measuring up to the self-promotion and hype of its creator that her box of ribbon and spools is “building women engineers<\/a>.” I applaud the sentiment, but if we are truly serious about improving the education of girls, it will take a lot more work than a trip to Toys R Us.<\/p>\n I could be wrong. I’ve recently been upgrading my initial assessment of littleBits<\/a>, based on my observations of children playing with the new toy\/electronics construction kit. So, perhaps I will soon fall in love with\u00a0Goldieblox<\/a>, but I doubt it.<\/p>\n Back to Monsignor Shareski…<\/strong><\/p>\n In his post<\/a> critical of the Goldidblox video, Fake and Real Student Voice<\/a>, Professori Shareski awakened several repressed social media memories I had long forgotten.<\/p>\n I took a lot of “brown porridge” when I called BS on the very same videos of yesteryear.<\/p>\n There was Dalton Sherman, the “amazing” 5th grader<\/a> who was coached all summer-long to give a condescending speech, written by the Dallas Schools PR department\u00a0 to Dallas teachers, right before laying off 400 of them.\u00a0 I smelled a rat the second I saw the video. Was called a big fat poo-poo head by teachers on social media and was right. BTW: Dalton Sherman seems to have disappeared just like those teacher jobs. So much for being the voice of school reform.<\/p>\n Then there was Michael Wesch (who is an important scholar) made famous by the hostage film he created in which college students decried the state of education.<\/p>\n Fantastic. A college class with far too many students in it (200) attempts to revolutionize the educational system by whining in a five minute web video.<\/p>\n I’m sorry, but count me unimpressed!<\/p>\n Perhaps a student should hold up a sign saying, “My professor is wasting my time and money by making me participate in a piece of exploitative propaganda in which I get to insult either my generation or the one before me just to get on YouTube.”<\/p>\n How did bashing our own profession become such a popular sport? What possible value could demeaning educators have in a professional development setting? Are we desperate for moving pictures or are they merely a substitute for actual ideas?<\/p>\n From Hey Mom! Look What I Made in College<\/a> (November 2007)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Aside from their lack of authenticity, what these three AMAZING viral videos of is how children and claims of “student voice” exploit children for propaganda purposes. The Goldieblox video is a commercial selling a toy<\/strong>. We don’t tweet Sir Grapefellow commercials<\/a> (my preferred boyhood breakfast treat) as AMAZING examples of student voice, so why the wishful thinking about Goldieblox?<\/p>\n Se\u00f1or Shareski rightfully cites my colleague Super-Awesome Sylvia<\/a> (read Super-Awesome Sylvia in the Not So Awesome Land of Schooling<\/a>) as a counter example to the fake Goldieblox commercial. I have worked closely with Sylvia over the past couple of years and made her part of the Constructing Modern Knowledge<\/a> faculty, not because she is cute (she is), but because she is accomplished. She knows stuff. She has skills. She has a great work ethic and\u00a0 is a terrific teacher (at 12).<\/p>\n However, talent and achievement\u00a0 did not made Sylvia immune from cynical exploitation by Rupert Murdoch and Joel Klein’s education cabal as documented in an article I wrote for the Huffington Post, Shameless Shape Shifters<\/a>.<\/p>\n So the moral of our story is…<\/strong><\/p>\n Three lessons…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/71j0XV6s9rL._SL1500_.jpg\" "\\"Goldiblox\\"")
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