Block Revival : Teacher Uses Old-Fashioned Wooden Toys to Help Build Her Students’ Thinking Skills

Shirley Levine has always believed that blocks are more than just child’s play.

In the late 1960s, while other grade school teachers were throwing out boxfuls of wooden blocks that had been used to teach a generation of children, Levine was stockpiling them in her classroom cabinets.

And while other teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District returned to pencil and paper methods, Levine continued to use the blocks in her classroom.

Levine thought block play was the best method of creating a stimulating learning environment for children in the lower grades. And in 1972, when she became director of Heschel Day School in Granada Hills, her strong conviction led to block play being added to that school’s curriculum.

Once Widely Used

It was a move that helped to keep what was a controversial teaching method alive in Southern California. Today Heschel is one of only a handful of schools that employ the blocks that were used widely throughout the Los Angeles School District for almost three decades. They are also used in Westland School in Calabasas.

Levine, a former consultant for the district, thinks her former employer made a mistake in giving up the block-play teaching method.

“Children sitting at desks with paper and pencil impresses lay people, but educators know that it isn’t the only way to teach young children,” she said. “Children learn through a variety of ways. Floor blocks allow them to learn in a more child-oriented way.”

Blocks were used extensively as a teaching tool in elementary classrooms throughout the nation from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Instructional methods like block play grew out of the Progressive Education Movement that developed in the United States during the early part of this century. Progressive educators, led by John Dewey and Harold Rugg of Columbia University’s Teachers College, called for abandonment of rote memorization and drill-teaching techniques. They encouraged educators to replace these methods with group projects and activities.

The blocks are sand-colored, range in size from 3 to 10 inches long and 3 to 5 inches wide and come in squares, rectangles, cylinders and arches.

Those who attended Los Angeles-area public schools in the heyday of blocks can remember using them to build communities filled with fire stations, zoos, harbors, airports and residential areas. To make their towns as realistic as possible, children added their own hand-lettered street and traffic signs.

When the towns were completed, the youngsters acted out real-life situations such as the Fire Department responding to a fire.

Teachers then structured math, reading, writing, social studies and geography lessons to complement the childrens’ dramatic play.

This same methodology is used today at Heschel. Recently, a group of Heschel kindergartners entered the school’s block-play room ready for an hour of academic play.

As soon as the door to the empty room opened, youngsters dashed in and pulled scores of blocks from the shelves. Then, working in teams of twos and threes, the youngsters began building their community.

Teacher Susan Goldman discovered two boys building the town airport. They had placed the control tower in the middle of the terminal. Goldman escorted the two architects to a large photo file where they looked at pictures of airports.

“The tower belongs near the runway,” one of the boys squealed in delight.

“That’s right,” Goldman said. “Now, go back and correct it.”

After the Heschel kindergartners completed their town, Goldman took the group to each structure so they could evaluate the work. The youngsters pointed out the good things--such as having a special exit in the zoo so animals could leave quickly in case of a fire. They also were quick to spot faulty logic, such as the block house that had no windows or doors.

Later in the day, Goldman had the children tell her stories about their construction experiences. As they talked, she sat at a typewriter and typed out their sentences. In a matter of moments, the children had “written” their own story about the community they created.

“This kind of structured play sparks a child’s innate curiosity and creates a natural desire for lessons in math, reading, writing, geography and history,” Levine said.

“It develops research skills and creates a microcosm of the democratic process,” she continued. “It is one of the best ways to teach teamwork and problem-solving.”

National disillusionment with block play started during the late 1950s when some parents and conservative groups complained that it was a poor way to teach the three Rs.

“In too many classrooms, license began to pass for liberty, planlessness for spontaneity and chaos for education,” wrote Lawrence A. Cremin, in the book “The Transformation of the School.”

The Los Angeles school district began to back away from the technique when a new emphasis was placed on reading skills, according to Patricia Boerger, a district curriculum specialist.

Shelving the Blocks

Additionally, she said, social studies textbooks shifted away from the study of communities. A lack of teachers trained in the methodology, the need to convert rooms used for block play into classrooms and the fear of lawsuits also contributed to the blocks’ demise.

After much heated debate, the critics pressured public schools to replace floor blocks with old-fashioned paper-and-pencil methods.

But now, after almost two decades in educational oblivion, block play is making something of a comeback. Heschel director Levine says she receives dozens of requests to observe teachers directing block play activities from public and private school teachers.

Block play has returned to the Los Angeles school district, on a limited basis. This year, 46 elementary schools in East Los Angeles added block play to the kindergarten curriculum. Educators in that region of the district discovered that block play is a good way to help limited English speakers build their English vocabulary.

“After the kids build an airport or a bank with the blocks and act out the roles of an air traffic controller or a bank teller, they have something to talk about,” said Ada Mermer, director of elementary instruction for the Eastside area.

“Children learn most effectively when they take part in the process. Floor blocks allow them to be part of the process,” she continued. ‘It’s a lot different than filling in the blanks on another drill sheet.”

Learning Through Play

Proponents of block play theorize that children learn more naturally through play. They say that when there is a link between play and the traditional academic courses such as math and reading, youngsters can more readily make the connection between their classroom lessons and the outside world. Block play can provide that link, Levine said.

Advocates concede there is little proof to back their contention that their methods are better than traditional teaching techniques. Standardized test scores do not show that blocks make a difference, nor do high school graduation rates, or scores on college entrance exams.

However, proponents say the reaction of children involved in block-play learning is evidence enough.

“I’ve had lots of students come back to tell me they have vivid memories of the dramatic play they took part in,” said Cythianna Brown, assistant vice principal at Seeds Elementary School in Westwood, a laboratory school connected with UCLA’s Graduate School of Education. Seeds Elementary used block play long before Brown arrived at the campus as a student teacher in 1945.

These former students “have turned out to be bright, well-educated people. It proves to me that we’re doing something right.”

John U. Michaels, a former education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, agrees that block play has a place in the classroom and predicts a renaissance.

“So many schools now harp about providing a ‘Back-to-Basics’ atmosphere that good teaching techniques such as block play are getting short shrift,” Michaels said.

“As we get more and more 4-year-olds into education programs, teachers who are on their toes are going to find that block play has an important role and is particularly effective with young children,” he said.

This resurgence of interest in floor blocks, Levine said, vindicates her faith in them.

“It’s encouraging,” she said with a sigh.