Noodling and Doodley Doo Time

Noodling is the thing I do when I'm trying to figure something out. I noodle out a melody on the piano or guitar, I noodle with the rhythm and rhyme scheme of a poem, my granddaughter noodles with a shoe lace willing the magic of knots and bows to manifest and hold fast.

When I was a kid, the hills of Echo Park were vast, expansive vistas to be explored. We didn't have much actual obligatory homework in elementary grades, so after the Mickey Mouse Club was over, we'd be out IN those hills, with seemingly endless hours of doodley doo time. Climbing trees afforded us the best views of the valley and Wilshire's Miracle Mile, way out there in the distance. Beyond that was a wee silver strip (or gold - depending on time of day) of The Pacific Ocean. It was a glorious place to grow up, and I'm grateful for the more user-friendly concept of the 1950's that allowed us kids to use our doodley do time as we chose.

Witnessing the pernicious and progressive whittling away of that precious un-dedicated time on the calendars of so many children worries me. Dance classes, science/math enrichment programs, and piano, oboe, viola, trumpet, or drum lessons may be important, but not at the expense of being out in the natural world being a scientist, musician, or dancer.

I am pleased that my granddaughter's new school seems less intent upon turning the kids into colorful parrots of useless information, and more intent upon supporting them to conceptualize the world around them, by giving them opportunities to manipulate it with their own two hands. The difference in her affect is striking. Instead of doing mimeographed (well, now Im' really dating myself... but at least, I'm dating!), let's say Xeroxed sheets (but since when did a corporation become a verb? I know a corporation is now a person, for gosh sake, but that's a topic for another blog), she now has time to run around in a pretty cool park with other kids working out whether their own loosely supervised play will take a Lord of the Flies bent or some other more humane path. These things have to be noodled out on the individual level, is my belief, not spoon fed with no ties to the creepy feeling in our stomach when someone is usurping power, putting others down, or we ourselves get carried away with extreme behavior.All this exploration needs to be done in doodley doo time.

All if favor of Doodley Dooing say Aye.