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offcntrFrom offcenter.biz, May 2014.
She snaps "Don't touch!" and inwardly I cringe. Another Saturday, another mom and kids in my Market booth. Or it could be a father, a grandparent, all enforcing the hands-off policy.
And it really bugs me. By saying "Don't touch," in that tone of voice, what we're teaching kids is that pottery is scary: dangerous, fragile, untouchable.
Children learn by touching. They pat things, they pet things, they put them in their mouths. Saying don't touch is tantamount to saying "You can't know about this stuff."
I don't know about you, but I've been noticing that my audience, the people who appreciate and purchase my pottery, is aging. We're going gray, clearing out the cupboards, downsizing. I'm trying to make a living as a potter. If we frighten our children away from pottery, where is the next generation of customers going to come from?
And the funny thing is, hardly any of my work has ever been broken by kids--I remember one incident in twenty years. Heck, I break more than that in a given month.
So I have a different rule in my booth. No "Don't Touch." Everybody, big or little, gets to pet the pottery. Only grown-ups are allowed to pick it up.
And nobody gets to put it in their mouth.
She snaps "Don't touch!" and inwardly I cringe. Another Saturday, another mom and kids in my Market booth. Or it could be a father, a grandparent, all enforcing the hands-off policy.
And it really bugs me. By saying "Don't touch," in that tone of voice, what we're teaching kids is that pottery is scary: dangerous, fragile, untouchable.
Children learn by touching. They pat things, they pet things, they put them in their mouths. Saying don't touch is tantamount to saying "You can't know about this stuff."
I don't know about you, but I've been noticing that my audience, the people who appreciate and purchase my pottery, is aging. We're going gray, clearing out the cupboards, downsizing. I'm trying to make a living as a potter. If we frighten our children away from pottery, where is the next generation of customers going to come from?
And the funny thing is, hardly any of my work has ever been broken by kids--I remember one incident in twenty years. Heck, I break more than that in a given month.
So I have a different rule in my booth. No "Don't Touch." Everybody, big or little, gets to pet the pottery. Only grown-ups are allowed to pick it up.
And nobody gets to put it in their mouth.