I thought you would be particularly intrigued by the last paragraph, Mullick talks about "getting lost in something" and "perfect moments" and if we can create those moments for others...made me think about how we started our dialogue on the Hawkins Workshop night. 

I am curious about Mullick's childhood and history. What have been the experiences that led him to advocating for children's inventiveness, creativity, play, etc.? Personally, I believe Mullick highlighted the genius/creativity present in ALL children. So how did Mullick get to where he is; to be an adult who chooses to put a spotlight on and advocate for this genius? It makes me curious how we can foster and develop this kind of advocacy in adults..what skills do adults need to be able to do what Mullick did(not necessarily using the same mediums)? What skills or prior experiences did Mullick have that led him to be able to "see" and cultivate this perfect moment with Caine and his Arcade? What made it a "perfect moment"? Was it only a perfect moment because it was shared? 

One teacher began the evening with a big burst of gross motor - she invited the participants to play hide-and-seek. Once she’d explored the room this way, she crawled inside a box and drew representations of the evening. We wondered whether children have this same need - to own the space physically before settling in.

One teacher found interactive games to create in the cardboard. She worked on different pieces and saw the possibilities for engaging her work with others.  One teacher engaged with the cardboard in a fluid kinetic-sculpture type of way while traveling around the room to dialogue with other teachers. Her cardboard changed shapes and configurations as she moved.

We wondered at the individual projects we encountered. Was there a necessary piece to the parallel play that we engaged in? What would it have taken for us to engage in collaborative play? Was it safer to be engaged separately with the same material while we are still getting to know each other?


We wondered how the children would engage with the cardboard the following day?

The following day we discovered the Imagination Foundation's Global Cardboard Challenge. In collaboration with Boulder Journey School, we are hosting our own #cardboardchallenge to celebrate every day as a day for play! Click here to visit our challenge page. Follow us on twitter (@hawkinscol) to keep track of our adventures as well!

Each workshop allowed us time to participate in all three phases of messing about...  And time to collaborate, find shared interests, and develop an It for our I's and Thou's.... And as we grew and learned as teachers, we laughed together, and sometimes cried together. We challenged each other and complemented each other.

Each workshop offered us time to explore the resources around us - materials and interests (eolithism).... And when the workshops were all done we realized we missed each other.

So we decided to do it again...

"There was one kind of development I must mention, a subjective one, which took place in parallel with the technical work of weapon development.... Everyone's life was being changed, changed radically I think, and irreversibly.... We all did know we were involved in something which would alter the nature of the world." 
David Hawkins, qtd in Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community, Jon Hunner