Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders.

I'm Kelly Corrigan, and today I'm wondering what happens when you build a place where kids get to be in charge.

This is our sixth episode in our Wired to Create series made possible by a grant from the Walton family

foundation today i'm talking with jonathan bjeure educator maker executive director of rediscover center

in los angeles a remarkable place where kids get access to recycled industrial materials

a wall full of tools, and something more rare

than either of those, time and space to figure it out for themselves. Jonathan has spent over 20

years working at the intersection of art, engineering, and education, including a stint at the

MIT Museum running programs that gave kids solar panels

and said, go make something with these. He holds a master's of library science and has been running

the show at Rediscover Center since 2014. He's also a passionate advocate for something that might be

the most countercultural idea in education right now,

that children learn more when adults get out of the way. Here's my conversation with Jonathan Bejure.

Hi, Jonathan. Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders. Thanks for saying yes and taking time away from all of your awesome work to talk to us.

Thank you.

Wonderful to be here.

The reason I know about you is because I was at my friend's house in L.A.

And in their living room, they have a cork chair that is made of all corks. And their daughter made it. And I said,

what is this? It could literally have been something that was sold through like a high end art

dealer. It is so cool and special and functional. Like you can literally sit at it and it has its own little desktop, like the old-fashioned

thing where you can bring the arm down and there's like a writing surface there.

And they said, Liza made it.

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