Ashley Tudor

Professor Erin Newcomb

English 170

29 September 2019

 

Sticks have been around since the beginning of time. People have always used them for either survival or entertainment purposes. People have used them to make fires, and children have used them to expand their imaginations and come up with creative ways to play.  Although we take them for granted, they have been useful for generations.

Sticks are lying on the ground all throughout the environment but are still considered “most prized and celebrated treasure”in The Strong National Museum of Play’s collections (Branch). The fact that the stick was featured in a National museum meant for children’s toys made the “last sixty seconds of many local TV news programs, right in the slot where the quintuplets usually go” (Branch). Many journalists and bloggers questioned “how will Americans figure out how to use or value it?” (Branch). Many people are divided on whether they think the stick’s importance is valid. People that have grown up themselves in lower income households and had to resort to playing outside and using sticks for creative fun support the museum’s decision. This is likely because of the emotional impact that the stick has had on them personally throughout their childhoods. People from higher income families that were able to afford expensive toys did not see the appeal of the stick because, logically, the stick is seen as too simple of an object to make a national museum of play.  The museum’s employees “pointed out that the selection panel of esteemed judges—intellectuals, artists, curators, pooh-bahs of various stripes—had a very difficult decision to make” when figuring out whether or not the stick belonged in the museum (Branch). To be chosen to enter the museum “the toy must: (1) possess icon status, (2) have longevity, (3) encourage discovery, and (4) promote innovation” (Branch). The stick encourages discovery and promotes innovation because it allows young children to expand their imagination and use that to create fun out of such a simple object. It is an iconic object because almost every child has grown up and played with sticks to entertain themselves and has been around since the beginning of civilization.

The scope of the issue is children and adults whose childhoods have been affected by the stick. Young children may not be able to understand the cultural and developmental that sticks may have on them, but as they begin to grow and develop may begin to realize that sticks have influenced their childhood for the better. This does not only have an influence on people of specific racial or economic groups, it impacts people from various statuses. It can be defined negatively because of the fact that it wasn’t designed by a human with the intent of being used for play. People may believe that someone’s invention that they worked hard on deserves to make the museum rather than an inanimate object, but the fact is sticks have had just as much of a cultural and developmental impact on children as most toys do.

 

Works Cited

 

Branch, Michael. “How a Stick Ended Up in the Toy Hall of Fame.” Outside Online, 10 July 

2019, www.outsideonline.com/2137906/how-stick-ended-toy-hall-fame.