Great Barrington — What’s that clicking sound echoing down the halls of Monument Valley Regional Middle School near Conference Room B? Listen carefully: It isn’t the sound of a ticking clock – or even two clocks; it isn’t the clatter of high-heeled shoes, either. No, it’s the sound of the “Cubing Club” hard at work trying to beat each other’s time at speed cubing…with none other than the Rubik’s cube, of course.
The sight of eight Middle Schoolers trying to master their cubes is one to behold. At the weekly after-school Cubing Club, the atmosphere feels electric with concentration amongst cheers of excitement and sighs of frustration as they all try to beat each other’s solving times.
Created in 1974 by sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik in Hungary and introduced to an international market in 1980, the Rubik’s Cube has become the best-selling toy ever with more than 350 million of the colorful cubes sold since its release.
I remember sitting with my siblings as a very young girl watching them try to figure out this never ending puzzle. The final solution for my brother was to simply take the stickers off and place them so, magically, the cube was solved.
Now, decades later the rage is on — yet again. My two boys, aged 10 and 12, are working on mastering the same cube that I remember from so long ago. How could it be that the big Christmas list item this year amongst their friends was a Rubik’s Cube? But the fun no longer stops with the original 3 x 3 monster that we played with. Now, there is a variety of sizes, some with 2, 4, 10 and even 17 cubes per side. Oh, and let’s not forget the “speed cube.” Don’t be deceived, some of these are not technically Rubik’s but a knock off from a faraway land. The fun is still the same.
As a mom, I couldn’t be happier to see my children using their mind in a way that does not include electronics. This doesn’t go without a struggle, though, as now they want to use their electronic devices to find out how to solve it. After all, you can find anything online. So now I hear things like “I have to figure out the algorithm to solve it!” I definitely don’t think my siblings were trying to figure out an algorithm, let alone using that word in a sentence.
In the Berkshire Hills district we are lucky to have the North American Rubik’s cube 4 x 4 record holder, Kevin Costello III. This ups the ante for the determined child who wants to compete for speed. My son recently solved the cube in under 1 minute. The question is, was this with an algorithm or with the power if his own brain? Impressive either way.
Erno Rubik, being a teacher himself, used his own creation to present information. I can only hope that our teachers have the opportunity to present information in such a creative fashion. Maybe the next great toy innovation will be born in the classroom of a local school. Maybe we can turn a little further away from the power of electronics and more towards the power of the brain. That may be a topic for another article, until then …cube on !
