“Stop copying me!”
From Brooklyn Arbor School:
One child (on the left) started a game where she hid different gold buttons in her boxes, lined them up, and covered them with the circle tiles. Another child (on the right) was opening/closing/filling his boxes on his own, but when he saw his friend’s arrangement, he decided to create a similar one.
How many of us have heard that phrase? Instead of admonishing the one who is “copying,” we take those moments as opportunities to talk about the power of contagious ideas. Children and teachers alike often need help understanding that when others seem to be copying someone else, they are actually revealing that they found the work striking and inspiring, and that they want to emulate it or build on it in some way. In a sense, the others at the table are saying, ‘I like what you are doing.’
When “copying” is allowed, we can notice that nothing is an exact copy, and children often end up following that inspiration or lead to a completely different endpoint. This is how discoveries are so often made -- from seeing what someone else is doing and freely exploring your take on it. Even if the two endpoints may appear, to our eyes, to be the same, each child experienced the process of playing, creating and building that structure or design differently. For these reasons, we welcome the cry of “stop copying me” as a chance to turn judgment into appreciation of how creativity and discovery work in the real world.
