NAEYC Young Children: Harriet K. Cuffaro, Champion of Unit Blocks

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Milestones in the History of Blocks as a Learning Tool ■■ 1693—Philosopher John Locke

suggests the use of “dice and playthings, with the letters on them to teach children the alphabet by playing.”

■■ 1837–1850—German educator

Friedrich Froebel, the “father of kindergarten,” creates seven Gifts and Occupations—learning materials children use in play. Gifts 2 through 6 are wooden blocks in various shapes and quantities.

■■ 1905—Patty Smith Hill, a profes-

sor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and later the founder of NAEYC, believes that Froebel’s blocks are too small for children to easily manipulate. She sees the need for a toy that can better encourage children’s social, large motor, and dramatic play skills. She creates the Hill blocks, which are more than 16 times larger than Froebel’s blocks.

■■ 1913—Caroline Pratt, an educator

with previous woodworking training, creates a system of unit blocks for the classrooms at Harley House and City and Country School (New

York). Unit blocks are based on the proportions 1:2:4 so children can use them to create, solve problems, and take on new challenges. ■■ 1935—Premo Rubber Company

develops Minibrix, a forerunner of LEGOs. The construction kits consist of interlocking bricks made of hard rubber with surface studs.

■■ 1955—Ole Christiansen, who

founded the LEGO toy company in 1934, develops the brightly colored plastic, studded, and interlocking LEGO bricks, which continue to be popular today.

■■ 1969—LEGO launches Duplo,

construction toys that are twice

the size, length, and width of LEGO bricks, making them easier to handle and harder to swallow for children ages 1½ to 5. ■■ 1978—Walter Drew begins produc-

tion of Dr. Drew’s Blocks, sets of small blocks that are all the same size and shape. They are smaller than unit blocks and ideal for tabletop building projects.

■■ 1995—Karl Oppen invents and

begins production of Tree Blocks using reclaimed, recycled, and sustainably harvested wood cut in small slices and pieces. Tree Blocks can be used on their own or with other kinds of blocks.

T

oday, blocks continue to be highly valued, versatile learning tools in homes and schools. When I Googled “blocks for children,” I got 247,000,000 results, including links to information about large cardboard brick blocks, hollow wooden blocks, alphabet blocks, interlocking blocks, blocks in different colors, foam blocks, flat boards of different sizes, and architectural blocks with shapes found on buildings in Japan, Egypt, Italy, and other countries. While unit blocks retain their widespread use, many other types and sizes of blocks are available to use on their own or with unit blocks. When I Googled “homemade blocks for children,” there were 1,640,000 results. Perhaps you noticed that the girl on the cover of this issue is playing with blocks that a teacher made by slicing PVC pipe into sections.

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Harriet K. Cuffaro, Champion of Unit Blocks

Susan Woog Wagner / © NAEYC

Festschrift—a German tradition—is a collection of writings honoring a senior scholar. The papers in a Festschrift do not directly praise the scholar but are exemplars of her continuing influence. Bank Street College has published a Festschrift as a tribute to Harriet K. Cuffaro. Dr. Harriet K. Cuffaro, now 86, is an internationally renowned early childhood educator and John Dewey scholar. She was one of the authors of NAEYC’s The Block Book, a classic publication cited frequently by the authors of the articles in this cluster. A member of the Bank Street graduate faculty for 30 years, Harriet taught at the City and Country School in New York City early in her career, and to this day is a staff developer and advisor for the school. Harriet is known for her deep-seated belief in openended materials such as paint, clay, water, sand, and blocks. Scan for resources Worldwide, she is recognized for championing the use of unit blocks, which she describes as the texts of the early childhood curriculum. The eight articles in the Festschrift can be found at http://bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series/32.

March 2015   Young Children

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