Wednesday 16 July 2008

Creativity....I think I just tripped on a gold-mine!!

One summer, about 10 years ago, I took off and went to Education Week at BYU. One of the best weeks of my life!! (I really ought to do that again one of these summers)

One of the classes that I've never forgotten was one on creativity. I remember going into it quite curious about how they'd teach a workshop over 4 days on creativity. When I left I realized there was a whole world of information and I had only sat on the tip of the iceburg on this topic.

Today I was cruising around some blogs and came across one on this very topic. I watched the video and it stirred up all those questions and ideas in my mind again.

The presentation is by a man named Sir Ken Robinson, who is an expert in the field of creativity (can you imagine?!) He says the creativity in education is as important as literacy and that we should treat it with the same status. I couldn't agree more!



I really worked hard before Jill started school to figure out what school would be the best for her. I remember going to one school that I was quite excited about - and after touring it and having an extensive conversation with the principal, realized it really wasn't for us. I just knew in my gut that she wasn't meant to be in a classroom where they sat in rows at desks and were run through a academically intense program. I knew she would certainly be able to meet their standards - but I worried that it would squash the creativity that was so evident in her personality. We finally found the school that we thought was a good match and off we went. All along the way I've had an amazing number of people want to sit down with me and persuade me to take my children out of that school to attend another program. For some reason nothing else has felt quite right. One of the keys for me is having room for creativity.

This video is quite amazing. It's from a website called TED. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out as a conference...but from what I can gather from the website, it's turned into much more. Their mission is to spread ideas. How interesting is that??! The 'about' page says: We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. This site, launched April 2007, is an ever-evolving work in progress, and you're an important part of it.

Oh boy....I think I've really hit gold here!!

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