Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: “Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today - and 45minutes each day for the rest of the week.”
五年前，当我在西雅图一所学校教艺术时，我在开学时用Tinkertoys（一种积木玩具）作为测试来了解我的学生。我在每个学生面前放了一小套Tinkertoys ，说：“用Tinkertoys做东西。你们今天有45分钟的时间，这周的每天都有45分钟。”
A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.
有几个学生犹豫要不要开始，他们等着看班上其他人会怎么做。其他几个人查看了说明，并根据提供的一个模型说明制作了一些东西，另一组人凭着自己的想象力创造了一些东西。
once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect other students.
曾经有一个男孩在空闲时间用Tinkertoys 做实验，建筑作品放满了艺术教室的一层架子和家中卧室的很大一部分。有这样的学生我很开心，这样的人非常有创造力。他的出现意味着我在课堂上有了一个意想不到的助教，他的创造力会感染其他学生。
Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, ” But I’m just not creative.”
鼓励这种想法有一个缺点，我会冒着失去那些思维方式不同的学生的风险。毫无疑问，有人会说，“但我就是没有创造力。”
“Do you dream at night when you’re asleep?”
“你晚上睡觉时做梦吗？”
“Oh, sure.”
“哦，当然。”
“So tell me one of your most interesting dreams.” The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. “That’s pretty creative. Who does that for you?”
“那么，告诉我你一个最有趣的梦吧。”这个学生会讲一些极富想象力的东西。在天空中或时间机器中飞翔，或者长出三个头。“这很有创意，谁为你做的？”
“Nobody. I do it.”
“当然是我自己。”
“Really-at night, when you’re asleep?”
“真的是在晚上，你睡着的时候？”
“Sure.”
“当然。”
“Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?”
“那么试着在白天，在课堂上，好吗？”