Since the time of cavemen, tools have been essential to evolution. They are catalyst of progress and the foundations of ideas. Tools have been used to tell stories, confess love, spread beliefs and knowledge of the past. As civilization evolved so too did its practices and teachings towards others. Poems were made into plays, work on the farm became easier, and the ability to write became digital. I often find myself using numerous tools to further my education and thinking for a long time.
When I was first starting to read and write I had a knack for computer like programs. I liked to use video games to that showed a character that I liked from a tv show.
I often used a leap frog pad that would take batteries and had a pen, to use it you would put in a card like device in the port. It was like a Gameboy cartridge, the earlier versions, and it was brick like. Once in it could work without the book but unless you knew whet the book was like you were never without it. On top of that you would interact with the book using the pen or stylus that came with it. Moving away from leap frog a game that I really enjoyed were made by Jumpstart, a company that focuses on early educational material. There was one for preschool, one for a circus with the ringmaster as a dog that said, ‘Hey I want to join a circus because I feel like it and you’re coming with me’. There was also one for Disney where you could play as the mischievous triplets and scare uncle Donald when he passed in front of the car with a comically pile of clothes just waiting to be scattered by a sheer and abrupt honk of the car. One of the other things you did was use a slingshot to knock down paint buckets to spell words or do math, I still found it to be a lot of fun. There was also one for Dora, I always thought that it was kind of redundant how she would respond to every question at the end of an episode with “I liked that too”. Despite the why she communicated to the audience it was still able to teach me simple things like counting to ten in Spanish, saying thank you and you’re welcome, and how it’s wrong to steal.
Another tool that everyone will use at some point, personally, I don’t like the pencil I prefer pens. Given that I have used a pencil in many different forms. Wood, mechanical, oversized, tiny midgets, flat, octagon and circular. There is a thing about the pencil which makes me dislike it, this being the surface of the lead to the paper. if you have ever gotten a gritty feeling when writing then you know what I’m talking about.
It’s like using your fingernails against a chalkboard to create that horrid ear wrenching sound that we all wish to never here. I found that noise several times when I wrote with a pencil and it sent what was like a shiver down my spine. A more accurate example would be like hit your elbow into a corner and the corner hits just in the spot between your muscle causing your arm to first go numb then go to pain and finally limb being that its numb. Aside from that the mechanical was a little better, you didn’t have to always go to the pencil sharpener to sharpen the pencil the led was ready to go at the push of an eraser. But they also had issues they broke too easily, they made the same horrid sound as the pencil from time to time and when you run out of lead as a five-year-old you started to search the floor for loose ones instead of paying attention in class. To a degree it was more fun to go on this scavenger hunt for then it was to sit still in a hard and uncomfortable chair. In the end I found that a pen was the best for writing. They were durable, smooth, ready to use, and they didn’t make the gritty noise like pencils did. There were also pens that could erase, which were useful.
Out of all the tools that have been mentioned so far, the one that I utilized the most was a teacher. I’m very grateful for my instructors; they were patient, willing, and determined to teach me despite my behavior.
The first teacher I ever had was in preschool, they taught me how to write, how to read, how to do some math, and what colors were. And as I stated before, they had a lot of patience. I tended to be difficult and troublesome. They had a certain presence to them that was warm and welcoming. It would be wrong of me to say that I liked every teacher that I met when learning to read and write, I thought that some teachers were just mean to me but as I’ve mentioned before, I was just difficult. However, my teachers were not just people employed in society; they were my parents and peers. My parents would read a story to me before bed, my favorite one was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. They would also have me read books to them every week and teach me what certain words meant and how they were used in a sentence. In school my friends and I would compete with one another when our weekly spelling test came around. The person with the best score would get a one Hershey kiss from everyone that took part in the competition. If there was a tie the next test would be the deciding factor that would also have its own winner for that week. So, someone could get two weeks winnings in only one week, many Hershey kisses where used throughout first to fifth grade of elementary school.
Tools take many forms. They can be pencils, people, plows, and animals. We’ve used them for hunting, teaching, preserving, and learning. Like the popular saying, ‘There’s no “I” in team’ there’s no progress without tools. The purpose of a tool is for communication, learning, surviving, and teaching. The creation of tools is man’s greatest asset.