 |
|
 |
"You can
discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of
conversation.”-Plato History of Dr. Drew's Toys, Inc. Ever since I was a young boy, I loved to play with wood and to build. I remember rummaging through bins and barrels of discarded wood scraps behind the cabinet shops and factories near where I lived in New York. I carried home bags and boxes of wood shapes to build castles and forts for my knights and soldiers. I grew up and became a teacher. I learned about Friedrich Froebel, the Father of Early Childhood Education, who taught that the child is divine and that play helps the child discover and express their inner creative power. I believe, like Froebel, that within the child—within everyone—there is a divine creative being, a sacred spirit that seeks to express itself in joyful ways. In 1970, I began working as director of the Science Education Center in Sierra Leone, West Africa. This position allowed me to draw upon my own early childhood experiences and realize that there is a wealth of reusable materials in any community that can be used as tools for invention and self-discovery. Five years later, in 1975, together with a parent volunteer, Mary Pichierri, I worked to establish the first public school recycle center (reusable resource center) in the U.S. in 1975. We visited factories and businesses, collecting all manner of materials that were destined for landfills. Also in 1975, I worked as an early childhood consultant in the Worcester Public Schools in Massachusetts. I handed a set of blocks to a kindergarten teacher, Sue Zack, and asked her to give them to her children and observe what they did with them. Sue Zack took pictures of the structures the children made and listened to their stories of what they built. They wrote stories and drew pictures. In 1978, my wife, Kitty, and I were inspired by the response to the blocks, made up 100 sets, and set out on a cross-country trip. We visited thirteen states: from Boston to California, New Mexico to Texas and Florida. Like Johnny Appleseed, we left 100 sets behind us with Early Childhood Educators across the country. In his 1826 book, The Education of Man, Friederich Froebel put forward the idea that it is through creative play that the child discovers and expresses the power of his own creative spirit. Building upon his teachings, the Institute For Self Active Education was incorporated in 1980 in Boston as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, tax exempt corporation with the vision of awakening the creative potential of people. Froebel was a great advocate of blocks play and a primary source of inspiration for both Dr. Drew’s Blocks and the professional work of the Institute. Also in 1980, after five years of research and field-testing, we incorporated as Dr. Drew’s Toys, Inc. From then on, Dr. Drew’s Blocks have grown to be an award-winning educational toy for young children and families. In 1984, with the assistance of the Worcester Public Schools Recycle Center, the Boston Public Schools Recycle Center (currently called Extras for Creative Learning) was created, and became a unique, national model for supporting teachers in their development of creative, hands-on learning. We have since worked intensively promoting creative play and using the blocks as a tool for developing mathematical thinking and science concepts. Since 1982, we have worked with NAEYC, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, to promote block play and the importance of quality, open-ended materials for children. As a founding partner with the Reusable Resources Association, Dr. Drew’s Toys promotes environmental education through the ethic of reuse. We are currently working with Kiwanis and High School Key Clubs to develop a mentoring program that fosters open-ended creative thinking for both teens and young children. Thank you for your interest in Dr. Drew’s Blocks! Dr. Walter F. Drew Also, be sure to check out the following links, which provide more information about our company and the cause for which we work: |