The science is clear. A child under the age of, let’s say 10, will learn far more from a stick than he or she ever will from the fanciest pants screen device ever invented.
(This is only slightly hyperbole. Many studies do confirm the critical role that concrete manipulation of three dimensional objects in space plays in the development of young brains, as well as the little benefit and great potential for harm provided by two-dimensional digital simulations. This, of course, should not need a study to prove if we start from the premise that we are designed by God as psychosomatic unions, i.e. embodied souls. The Catholic Church has been on about it since at least the time it came into contact with the Gnostics. I invoke our modern shibboleth “Science!” merely to minister to those who have the strange fetish of preferring “Science!” to common sense, most of whom could not define “Science!” in a sentence that could hold water for five minutes if their lives depended on it).
I un-digress.
If a stick is such a rich nugget of neural development, how much more so a more complex simple machine?
Enter the humble wheelbarrow!
Here we witness, in real time, the learning of principles of leverage and friction, of balance and force, energy and work.
Look at that smile! She is learning these principles, not in an abstract formula (that will come with high school, or maybe sooner if Uncle Adam has his way), but in real concrete embodiment befitting a rational animal, in her nerves and brain and muscles and bones. These physical tissues are literally changing shape and adapting at microscopic and macroscopic levels to change her body and mind into the sort of human who can solve problems, lift, push, pull, exert leverage, and push through a challenge to victory on the other side.
And… she is having fun and being just too cute at the same time. Win, Win, (Winnie) Win!
Little Farm in the Big City 