Freedom to Tinker

Nancy with Marion Martinez, an amazing “tinkerer” who makes art from recycled computer parts.

Many, many years ago, way back in 1972, a record album was produced under the title, Free to Be… You and Me. It featured songs and stories sung or told by celebrities of the day including Marlo Thomas, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross, and was followed by an illustrated book.

The intent of each was to promote values such as individual freedom, tolerance, and comfort with one's identity. The message was that children, both boys and girls, should be free to achieve whatever they want to do. Maybe we need a new, contemporary version of Free to Be…You and Me now, because we still seem to be facing the same challenges in our schools and in society.

How do you address issues of freedom and identity in your art room? How much freedom of choice do you provide your students? How do you encourage them to express their individuality? An engaging concept I recently learned that you might want to consider adopting for your art room climate is the “freedom to tinker.”

I discovered this idea from a blog post by Ed Felten, a professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University that I found through the Art21 website. Though Felten is primarily addressing the freedom to tinker through technology - to understand, repair, and modify its use - I believe his basic ideas adapt well to the art room. “Tinkering” is an engaging term and it closely correlates to contemporary approaches for artistic literacy in our digital/visual age, the tech-influenced maker movement, and play-based and choice-based art education. How can you make an environment in your art room where your students have the “freedom to tinker”?