The Dog-Exercising Machine: A Study of Children as Inventors

Häftad bok. Penguin Education. 1971. 126 sidor.

Nära nyskick. Klassiker inom kreativitet. Mycket fint skick. Oläst. Namnad. Children ranging from four to fourteen were invited to invent a dog-exercising machine. This book, with comments from Edward de Bono is a selection of the results. What precisely is the function of the Thyristor GRS 3/40? Who would have thought of exercising a dog in a stationary position by attaching springs to each leg (result: dog puffed out) if you could lay on thunder and lightning could the dogs ‘do it faster’? No one looking at these drawings can fail to be impressed by the ingenuity and imagination of the children when they are allowed a free hand. As Edward de Bono says, “A child’s drawing lies somewhere between poetry and reason and humour and art.” The remarkable thing about these children’s inventions is that the reason is as great as poetry, the art as strong as the humour. “Look at the drawings anyway you like,” writes Edward de Bono. “Generate your own comments. There is nothing sacred about the comments I have made… For my part I am interested not so much in imparting any message but in rescuing the thinking process from the irrelevant complications that make it so artificial and boring. I would like to suggest with the help of these drawings that it is a fascinating and beautiful process.”