A Word from John Ratzenberger
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 tinkerers.
Alas, tinkering is going the way of the horse and buggy. Why? Because fewer and fewer young people care to pull themselves away from the world of digital entertainment, nor are they being led away by their parents, who themselves probably don't tinker anymore.
On the surface, this may sound like it's just one of those facets of progress that every generation experiences, and that those who complain about it are just crotchety old coots who used to complain about, well, the horseless buggy.
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?
"You never start designing something from scratch," said a mechanical engineering student who encourages tinkering. "In reality, designers learn from other systems and what other people have done before them." In other words, they learn by doing.
I've heard firsthand from dozens of factory owners that one of their biggest fears, apart from foreign competition, is how to stay in business when so few young Americans are capable of, or interested in, working with their hands. If Americans are to remain a strong force in the industrial and technological world, then we must reintroduce our young people to the joys of tinkering.
And yes, tinkering is indeed a joy. It's not like having to force-feed them Castor oil. It's more like introducing them to an unseen world full of wonders and pleasures, a place where they're the masters -- they, their hands, their imaginations, and their willingness to learn by playing. At the very least, even if a young tinkerer doesn't grow up to become the next Thomas Edison, he or she has still spent countless hours doing something far more valuable and worthwhile than most of what passes today for entertainment.
I can think of no enterprise more worthy than one devoted to kids tinkering. I hope you'll follow the links and learn how to get your children started working with their hands. Together, we can build a healthy future for all of us. Future inventors and engineers of America, unite!"
— John Ratzenberger
