One on one with Paige Shields

After being a stay-at-home mom for several years, Paige Shields was looking for a way to use her extensive computer skills to reenter the workforce in a child-friendly, flexible and sociable way. Not finding an existing job that fit the bill, in 2005 she created Whiz Kidz computer gaming and education center.

Leslie Dinaberg: When you started out, had you ever seen anything like Whiz Kidz?

Paige Shields: Not really. But there was a shoe store downtown (Global Kids), … they had these game cubes and (my then three-year-old son) Hayden would just turn on like fire when he saw those games, and he didn’t even know what they were. I got to where I would go once a week so he could play the games, but I would guiltily buy the cheapest pair of shoes I could find.

… So much of my life centered on technology that, when he was a baby, I thought I don’t even want him to see a computer until he’s 30. … I wanted him to be a surfer poet and have no computer skills whatsoever… we had a separate office, we tried to keep the door closed all the time, but he was a smart baby. And every time I left that door open he was in my chair at the keyboard.

LD: I remember you told me that he learned his ABC’s easily from playing a Spiderman game, after you spent months trying to teach him the old-fashioned way.

PS: Then I started experimenting with other games, asking him what he liked. … I would help him and he would get frustrated and I would get frustrated. … he would say “Mommy leave me alone. Just let me try.” So, I would walk away for 20-30 minutes, get distracted and I’d come back and he’s passed a level. …I was amazed at that. So that was our first big training lesson at Whiz Kidz: don’t hover over kids.

LD: When you’re learning anything that has to do with computers or technology it’s so hands-on, it’s different than passively sitting in a classroom.

PS: And that’s one reason I think that we can teach our classes to considerably younger kids, is that they don’t even have to be able to read for about 70% of our classes, not that it doesn’t help.

LD: But kids are so much more advanced, the schools keep needing to adjust the technology standards higher.

PS: I think that’s the challenge at Whiz Kidz and computer education in general. One of the reasons it’s so expensive is that it changes so fast, and you’re trying to stay up-to-date. We’re at a slight advantage probably over the schools simply because we are only doing computer education. And I can bring in any expert I think can teach the latest thing … Nine times out of 10 the people who even consider coming to do a class at Whiz Kidz are amazingly great people. … When I ask, “Why are you doing this?” They usually say, “I just think this is a great thing. This is so cool, I wish this existed when I was a kid.” We’re the anti-boredom, anti-testing center. That’s our other name.

LD: Does Whiz Kidz still have a focus on education?

PS: Yeah, absolutely. Now that we’ve expanded (taking over the Captain Video space in the Turnpike Shopping Center), even more so. … The first year was mostly about gaming and birthday parties … then after our first spring break and certainly our second summer when we sold out almost every class, which was phenomenal. …we offered enrichment programs after school for the first time and only one class didn’t fill up in our second session. And that was with almost no advertising because I couldn’t afford it because we were paying for so much new equipment.

LD: What about the film classes? Most kids I know like to make movies of doing dangerous skateboard tricks or blowing things up.

PS: Yes, we’re all over that. That’s what half of the Whiz Kidz movies are, that’s what happens. The first year the film festival came out we took some heat because there were kids playing soldier in their back yard and they had put in realistic sound effects to the water guns … but our only rule was it had to be PG-rated … Mainly our focus is … are you telling a story, are you learning how the program works, how the camera works, how the lighting works … the result is often potty humor or whatever kids do …If you want to know what’s going on in a 9-year-old’s mind, watch the film festival reel.

In the first film class … the very first question… “So what do you use for blood? Jam or ketchup? Do they teach you that in film school?” Oh man. Very first question.

LD: And that tells you a lot. What are the most popular games?

PS: Lego Star Wars is still really, really popular. World of Warcraft, every Star Wars game really, Battlefield 2, Call of Duty and Super Smash Brothers.

LD: What are some of your favorite moments at Whiz Kidz?

PS: My favorite time is when kids are all playing a game together …ten kids all playing the same game at the same time and they just are screaming, you killed me, I’m going to get you. It’s almost chase in your backyard but on computers. I just really love it when they’re so happy and having so much fun and doing something they cannot do anywhere else. It’s awesome.

LD: If you could pick three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?

PS: Crazy, jiggly, softhearted, kind of a pushover.

LD: Don’t tell the kids that.

PS: I think they know. I think Whiz Kidz is based on those three qualities (laughs).

LD: If you could be invisible anywhere in Santa Barbara, where would you go and what would you do?

PS: I would probably jump into the ocean naked–I’ve always wanted to do that.

Vital Stats: Paige Shields

Born: Oklahoma City, January 26

Family: Husband John, son Hayden (6)

Civic Involvement: CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), Robo Challenge robotics competition

Professional Accomplishments: Worked for the Department of Defense as a political scientist and database expert in the field of nuclear non-proliferation; computer and database consultant for the private sector; founded Whiz Kidz in 2005

Little-Known Fact: “The thing that the kids are always most shocked about is that I used to work for the Department of Defense and that I have a top-secret clearance. They always go, ‘Wow, were you a spy?'”

 

Originally published in Noozhawk on December 10, 2007