What's Minecraft got to do with Writing and History?

What's Minecraft got to do with writing and history??
Well, what's Minecraft not got to do with something, would be a better question to ask I think!

Yesterday, Raghav called me to show all his new updates in his world in Minecraft - a regular feature that happens every day, or every other day. And I was surprised to see what he had created and his new interest in 'writing'. For a child whose dislike for school started with being forced to write any more than he wanted to, and more so when it started eating into his play time, to have come this far today, is an achievement that fills me with joy and gratitude for Life, who showed me the path that I needed to take with him.

Here is what he shared with me, as part of the many other things that he had created yesterday.....
It is a conversation that he has recorded by typing it all out in his 'KEEP IN TOUCH BOOK' in his Minecraft world, between him (denoted by 'r') and the 'Red Village Leader' (denoted by 'rvl'), about some events that transpired yesterday in the world! It's truly amazing the things one can do and create with Minecraft, which I have myself been watching and learning only of late, from and with him. I can see now how for him, it is like an artist's palette and canvas, where so many worlds are created inside worlds....

The 'Keep in Touch' book is his own idea for a name

the conversation between him and the village leader

A little note I found by his computer, which I think are his 'notes' of coordinates to the village in his Mesa World :)

What amazed me was his new interest in writing, which was one of the sore points many years ago, for his wanting to quit school. He stopped writing then, except for special occasions like people's birthdays when he would make a card or something for them, or when he would help me occasionally with my shopping list, or when he wanted to make labels for things he had built with Lego. We never forced him to write at all, nor did we even ask about or mention writing with him after he quit school. We simply let it go. And this is the first time he has written so much in all these years!

Here is the conversation between me and him when I saw what he had written....

R: This is a conversation between me and the Red Village Leader about things that happened in my Mesa World today.
Me: Ok. How long did you take to type all this?
R: About five minutes I think.
M: How did you get this idea to put it down like a conversation? I love it! Did you happen to read my blog sometime or happen to watch me type out our conversations on the blog? Because I have used the same idea!
R: I knew you would love this! No, I haven't seen that....I didn't get the idea from you...I thought of it on my own.....but it is funny that we thought of the same thing!
Me: So why did you want to do this?
R: I wanted to record what happened somewhere....the catastrophe which happened! So I decided to write it down in my 'Keep in Touch' Book. And this is not only about writing it all down. It is about history too....about things which happened in a particular order in a place.
Me (smiling): Ok....So, are you also your own best friend?
R (smiling back) :Yes.....kind of!

I smiled and hugged him. I told him how much I loved this idea and the execution. And I quietly wondered how he had  figured out on his own, what 'history' actually meant to him! Watching my son learn gives me a real high :)

I remembered how frustrated he used to get with writing even on those few occasions, when the letters would not turn out the way he wanted them to look.....he wanted them to be perfect.....he hated making a mistake and rubbing it off or striking it out. He would just scream, get up and walk away from it and never come back to it. I also remembered how he had told me once about how the teachers at school expected them to know spellings of words without having taught them, or without them having enough opportunity to have seen those words. "How can they expect us to know the spellings that they haven't taught us? How can they expect every letter, every time, to be perfect?", he would ask. And I would listen in silence.

Today I am happy that he is enjoying writing in his own way. I am happy that he has figured it out on his own - the spellings, punctuation, spacing, formatting and expressing his creativity in his own way. I am most happy that I don't know how he learned all this. I am most happy that Life did not let me into this secret! Oh, what joy it is to experience this today! :) I am filled with gratitude for Life, who has shown me yet again in her own way, that we are on the path that was meant for us to take.....

So yes, this is not 'writing' if one is looking at the traditional idea of writing as what one does with a pen and paper. But this is perhaps what 'writing' is today.....in a world where technology reigns.....
For some of us who perhaps don't want to change with the times, it perhaps rules the mind, bringing up many fears about our future - the fear of loss of years of culture and civilization and beauty......but for some who seem to be 'in tune' with the changing world, I wonder if it perhaps becomes the palette of a spirit that knows not only how to survive, but also how to dream and thrive and look for beauty in new ways.

On Anger

This morning, my husband got a call from someone in his Madurai office, which made him retort in extreme anger. His voice became louder, his tone increased in harshness and he was simply screaming over the phone at the other person.

At the same time, while I was busy with my household chores, Raghav was talking to me about his explorations and adventures in Minecraft from yesterday. I was trying hard to concentrate and listen fully to him talking, but I couldn't. My husband's screaming was the only thing resonating inside and everything else seemed to simply shut down. So I told Raghav how I was feeling and asked him to wait until his father calmed down to continue his conversation. This happened a couple of times. The last time, he got a little irritated as he desperately wanted to finish sharing what he was thinking about.

Then, he went to the dining table, took out a pen and a piece of paper and wrote out something that he went and gave to his dad. A little later, my husband's voice softened and he stopped screaming. Later, when I asked Raghav what he had given his dad, he brought out the piece of paper and showed it to me....

 

And then we spoke some more...

Me: What do you think we can do when we feel so much anger?

R: I don't know. But maybe not show it out like this.....because when you get angry and scream, the other person gets angry, and then you get a little more angry, and the other person gets a little more angry, and then it never stops.

Profound but simple words that tell me how much he has observed and thought about without maybe even being conscious about it. Or maybe he already knows. I don't know. And I also know how tough it is for him to remember this when he himself gets angry :) But I quietly told myself that I could use this to remind him :)

But this is a huge learning for me about anger, how to deal with it, and about my son. The fact that he could see the 'pattern' that we get into because of anger, the fact that he chose a beautiful, non-intrusive way to tell his dad what he felt by writing it out instead of telling him orally, the fact that he actually wrote it all out (because writing is something he doesn't care about at all) are all beautiful things that I would love to stay with today. I love these little gifts that Life brings me day after every wonderful day!

Writing

In this day and age of computers and technology and gizmos, I find it quite strange that most people and schools still give so much importance to writing - handwriting. Why do we need to write still? Have we sat down and thought about that deeply?

Looking back at my school years, I remember how we used to dread our handwriting class - yes, we used to have a class just to practice good writing! I always felt that it was almost an art class of sorts, as all we did was to copy rows and rows of words, perfectly formed between two lines, every single time. And we would be graded for that! Sounds silly doesn't it? I remember how I used to write beautifully in this handwriting class (even got the top grades for it!), and go wild in all the other classes! My writing today speaks of my rebellious spirit - it is a scrawl, it follows no rules, each letter stands on its own (I always disliked cursive writing, and we were not taught cursive at all in school) and each letter would be formed a different way every time! For a long time, I had trouble keeping a standard signature :)

I also remember how when Raghav was younger, my mother and grandmother used to ask me to get him to write on a slate with chalk, as they felt that that was the best way to get a good, neat handwriting! One's handwriting was supposed to reflect one's personality. And personalities had to be the best, always. :)

Raghav however disliked writing, ever since they started it regularly in school, and more so when it started eating away into his playtime. It became one of the sore points for him to dislike school, and with a vengeance. For a long long time after he got out of school, he did not touch a crayon, pencil or paintbrush. He did not want to have anything to do with writing or drawing. And so we gave up. We then moved to a space of just letting him be. It happened when we trusted him and life. And then one fine day, he asked to paint! My heart took a leap...and soon, he was painting the whole solar system, one planet at a time!

But he would often feel sad if he felt that the drawing or writing did not look close to perfect - perfect the way he had imagined it in his head! He would sob and throw the pencil away. He would react the same way, even if I didn't draw something perfectly. I remember a day when we were chatting, and I casually asked him about writing and what he felt about it, he told me how the teachers at school always wanted the letters to be perfectly formed, every single time. He also pointed out how they would ask them to write words without having shown them the spelling even once! "How is that possible amma? To write perfectly every time, and know the spellings without seeing the word even once?", he asked. I realised that in many ways, he was a perfectionist, and wouldn't even attempt something, until he was sure of himself. I also realised that he was a strong visual learner. That was how he learned the spellings of words - by seeing them repeatedly over a period of time, not so much by sounding them out.
 
Today, I spent a good part of the afternoon planning games with Raghav for his birthday party tomorrow with a handful of his friends He finally voluntarily took a break from Minecraft to think up of games and clues for a treasure hunt game that he wants his friends to play.....to discover their treasure (his gifts to them!)...I was amazed at the clues he thought of for each, that were like small riddles...this is the first time he's doing something like this and so it does mean a lot to me!

And then I was asking him how he wanted to do the clues, and he immediately dismissed writing saying: " The computer is better actually for this as the letters will come out perfectly...I will type out all the clues and then print them out...I also haven't used the computer for this in a long time!"

"So it means a lot to you that the letters have to look perfect?", I asked softly.

"No, not exactly.....but I would prefer that! I don't want to write," he smiled.


He went on to type out all the clues on his own, with almost no help from me with the spellings. He had learned the spellings on his own somehow. I don't even know how or when.

There are so many different reasons why children don't want to write. Why don't we just let them have their way? Why don't we rethink our need to hold on to writing, almost like a religious custom, which if not followed, will pave our path to hell?

I think that writing, as a skill that needs to be taught and practiced, today has taken on a role like what grammar has to a language. We are now so caught up in the nitty-gritties of both that we are losing out on the larger beauty of the whole picture. Writing is but a tool for communication. Language is but the medium. While looking at what's missing or wrong, or what needs correction or practice, in both handwriting and grammar, we are damming the natural flow of the river, that already knows where to go and how to get there with ease. We are looking to teach a river how to flow and where to go.

Trials and Tribulations

Today seemed like any other day. Raghav has been back in his Lego world for some time now, watching Lego Undercover videos on the iPad, when he is not in the midst of his cherished bricks. Every morning, for the last week or so, he has been a man on a mission - waking up, lying in silence and staring into space on the bean bag ( his most favourite space in our house), and then suddenly getting up to go to his room and get started on his project for the day. Today, he announced to us that he was going to build a movie theatre, before disappearing into his little Lego world :)

Over the last week, most of what he has built have had name boards on them, which he painstakingly creates and makes on his own, with little or well-defined help (usually for sticking them on; not even asking for spellings) from me, as and when needed. He has chosen of late, to write rather than type out the names for the buildings he creates for his Lego city. He has chosen to stay with the trials and tribulations of writing - something that he rarely did in the past. He has chosen to be with his pain and wait for the elusive joy of creating well-formed, perfect (in his opinion) words with pen and paper.

He made five attempts today to get these name boards done. After every attempt, he would scream in agony, angry at himself for making a mistake, and go away to another room to be by himself. He did not want any help. He did not want a quick-fix solution this time. He wanted to be with his frustration, pain, anger and sadness of knowing that no matter how hard he tried, it was just not coming out right. All that I could do, was to be with him, hug him and kiss him. The first few times, he did not even want  me to talk. And so I sat with his pain in silence.

The last time however, he was heartbroken as he had got all of them right, except for the last one alphabet/number. He couldn't believe that he had got the last one wrong.
"I am very sad, frustrated and angry Amma," he screamed, throwing himself on the bed, his arms and legs flailing, body contorting, like an injured worm.
"Amma, why is it that it never comes out right for me?", he sobbed.
It is hard to be a perfectionist. I saw myself in him. I had felt the pain of falling from my own self-created pedestal and benchmark so many times before. It is a raw, deep pain when you feel that you are not good enough, not because of some image that you have of yourself from listening to what others think or say, but because you have fallen in your own eyes....when you want to be who you cannot be.

There was room for me to get in there - finally. I acknowledged how he was feeling in silence, and then when he had calmed down a bit, asked him if what he was feeling was really true.
"Was it really true that nothing came out right?", I asked quietly.
"No," he said with a faint, transient smile brewing.
We then listed out all the alphabets that he had written correctly. We spoke about how they were all neatly formed, how they were in a line and not dancing elsewhere :), how they were all fitted within
the space he had drawn out, and how he had got only one alphabet/ number in the whole string wrong.
"When you see a doughnut, do you see the hole or the yummy doughnut?", I asked him.
" I see the doughnut only," he replied, with a beaming smile.
"So can we see the doughnut here?", I wondered with him.
He had got the message.
He jumped up and was off to make another attempt! And then, he also went on to make the name board that said "CINEMA" on it! Each and every letter was made by drawing around a Lego block to get the square shape, writing the letter inside that square, without any help, and sticking it up on the Lego name board.

           Failed attempts.....

 

The joy of finally getting it right :)

The Cinema - complete!

the snack counter inside

inside the theatre

McQueen on the screen!

It was hard for me to believe that a child who had developed a hatred for writing at school, years ago, was now making a sincere and happy attempt to do just that! It was harder for me to understand how a child with absolutely no practice or even attempt to write, for months together, could actually write with such finesse!

Trials and tribulations must (happen to) bring out the best in us.

Crazy about cars!

R's latest fetish is cars- all kinds of cars, how they are made, the different models, their history, details about each one - for example, how the brake lights look, the symbols, the shape of the body, and many other details like maximum speeds, etc.

A few days ago, he asked me to suggest something that he could do (from his toy collection), which he hadn't done for a long time. I suggested that he take out his car collection and look at what he had. He jumped up and dashed off! 

Soon, he was all smiles, picking out each little car from the box, inspecting and naming it....and then placing them in little groups according to the companies that made them. He discovered that many of the cars that he has raced with in his latest iPad app Real Racing Challenge - like the Lamborghini, Dodge, Mercedes Benz, Fiat, and even the prized Koenigsegg, were there amongst many toy cars that he owned since he was 2 or 3 years old! Some of them had the symbols of the companies, while for the others, he just gave names depending on how close to the original they looked :)

Then he wanted me to help him make placards for each car that he chose. He Googled the symbol, printed each one out, wrote out the names himself, cut each one out patiently, stuck them on the cardboard and placed them alongside each car. His car showroom took shape slowly in the corridor, as he waited for his father to come home and see his surprise!

We recently bought him a remote controlled Lamborghini car (his dream car!) and now he spends a good part of the day playing with it, talking about it, and admiring it. He even wipes off the dust with his towel (something you would rarely see him do) sometimes! When he gets a little bored playing with it in the same way, he asks me to think up challenges for his car to do. Soon he is busy maneuvering the long, unwieldy car through obstacles (old wooden blocks lined up), making figures of eight, turning it 180 degrees within a narrow stretch of space (that he pretends is the road), without going off the road, reverses all the way around a table from start to finish, accelerates full speed and brings the car to a halt just  before the finish line and many more. Many of these were things that I did while I was learning how to drive a car, many many years ago! I was amazed at the elan and dexterity with which he managed to complete all these challenges.

He also has an astounding memory for some of the facts and figures to do with these cars, that are mentioned in his iPad app. For a kid who keeps saying that he has a 'forgetful mind' most times, this is simply amazing! He will rattle off performance ratings, maximum speeds, time taken to accelerate to 60mph, model number and name etc. from memory, while I am washing dishes or cooking in the kitchen. He will then quiz me on those and rejoice in my goof ups :) He will get me to list out all the cars that he owns after having cleared some levels in the game; or he would ask me to choose a car to race with for him to clear the next level and go ahead.

During the course of one of these conversations, he told me how much a car's speed (in miles per hour) would be in kilometres per hour! He had worked that out based on some comparison that was there for one of the cars, in the app. He then kept asking me questions like how long a car would take to travel a particular distance, given its speed....or how much distance it would cover in a given time, if its speed was a certain number...what was amazing was that he would look at it from so many points of view and permutations at one shot, not waiting to finish and completely understand one, before moving to the other. It was as if each point of view of the problem was helping him in its own unique way to arrive at some understanding of it. Fascinating!

The next thing that he wanted to do was to measure the speed of his new Lamborghini Aventador - remote controlled car and then compare its speed to that of a hand-driven Mercedes Benz Unimog U400 (a huge LEGO model with motor et al) that he had recently built. It was a perfect setting for an experiment and an opportunity to find out what speed is and how it is measured. He set up the experiment, deciding on the start and end-point, how to measure distance and time, organised everything, gave directions to me as to what was my role, and even arrived at an approximate speed, with a bit of help, with all calculations done mentally!

You can see a video that we took (of ourselves doing the experiment together) of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8myRkIXWFQ

His craze for cars has driven him to explore other paths too on his own. He has watched many videos on Youtube on how many of the top cars are manufactured, found out about their history, and he now also has another app that plays the different engine sounds of the different cars! So he is busy straining his ears to listen and tune in to those special sounds :)

I had not in the wildest of dreams thought that his passion for cars would get him to travel to all these places in such a short time! Uncharted territories are always fun, exciting and mysterious :)