Building a strong foundation requires a support structure of open adults to foster and encourage playful experiences. Learning is not a solitary process; it is a “communal activity.” Jerome Bruner talks about the social culture of learning in “Actual Minds, Possible Worlds.” He said,

1. I have come increasingly to recognize that most learning in most settings is a communal activity, a sharing of culture. It is not just that the child must make his knowledge his own, but that he must make it his own in a community of those who share his sense of belonging to a culture. It is this that leads me to emphasize not only discovery and invention but the importance of negotiating and sharing – in a word, of joint culture creating as an object of schooling and as an appropriate step en route to becoming a member of the adult society in which one lives out one’s life.
   

Bruner’s conceptualization of communal learning expresses the need for a student to belong, not only to a supportive family, but to also find mentors and a learning community that supports growth and development in an area in which a youth is interested. Often the idea of approaching an advanced member of an interesting field or even of expertise seems intimidating to young people, who is unsure of their own talents and understanding and are led there only by interests. The ultimate success for such a student is to find a community that supports peer evaluation and growth. Calder’s mobiles, for example, were inspired by a visit with Piet Mondrian and through talking to him about the light moving across the images of his block-color paintings. The communal atmosphere in Paris during that period led to several artists talking to one another about their work. Rugoff encourages Bruner’s emphasis on communal learning, not only for the mentee, but also the mentor. She said,

1. The mutual involvement of people working on similar issues is part of the social context of creativity. Dialogue, collaboration, and building from previous approaches often provide the catalyst for putting two ideas together that would not have occurred without the need for the individual thinker to carry out, explain, or improve on approach.
   

The opportunity to share beliefs and understandings results in the teacher gaining a deeper understanding and evolution of ideas into exciting new opportunities to answer questions posed by a student who challenges the boundaries of the mentor’s own thinking.