What LEGO Knew in 1974 That Many Parents Still Haven't Figured Out

I stumbled across this photo of a note LEGO purportedly wrote to parents in 1974. 

To Parents

The urge to create is equally strong in all children. Boys and girls. 
It's imagination that counts. Not skill. You build whatever comes into your head, the way you want it. A bed or a truck. A dolls house or a spaceship.
A lot of boys like dolls houses. They're more human than space ships.
A lot of girls prefer spaceships. They're more exciting than dolls houses.
The most important thing is to put the right material in their hands and let them create whatever appeals to them.

Totally awesome. Couldn't agree more. Giving kids the tools to create whatever they want -- and asking questions that encourage problem solving, prediction and analysis -- is the best way to give your child a creative, entrepreneurial mind.

LEGO was also right on with this ad from 1981: 

Have you ever seen anything like it? Not just what she's made, but how proud it's made her. It's a look you'll see whenever children build something all by themselves. No matter what they've created.

Younger children build for fun. LEGO Universal Building Sets for children ages 3-7 have colorful bricks, wheels, and friendly LEGO people for lots and lots of fun.

Older children build for realism. LEGO Universal Building Sets for children 7-12 have more detailed pieces, like gears, rotors and treaded tires for more realistic building. One set even has a motor. 

LEGO Universal Building sets will help your children discover something very, very special: themselves. 

LEGO was clearly all smart and progressive in the early 80s -- they knew that play behaviors change from simple representations to realistic ones as kids got older, and they knew the power of unstructured, creative playtime. Which makes it a little weird that (as far as I can tell) LEGOs today mostly come in specific, rather than Universal, sets. 

Is it because they can make more money selling multiple specific sets? Or is it because today's parents think it's more "educational" for kids to be assembling (like a machine) instead of envisioning and creating? Or something else? I don't know. But I'm still pleased and impressed by some of these early LEGO ads.