Mon, Sep 4, 2006
Inspiring Creativity
I spent most of the day watching almost every single one of the TED Talks, but the one I enjoyed the most was Comments
I spent most of the day watching almost every single one of the TED Talks, but the one I enjoyed the most was Sir Ken Robinson’s case for shifting the world’s educational priorities to nurture creativity.
Creativity, now, is as important in education as literacy, and we have to treat it with the same status.
And his main point is clear: education prepares us for success as cogs in an industrialized world that hasn’t existed for 50 years. We’re taught not to be creative, to provide right answers. Wrong answers bring the machine to a halt. And as Robinson sums up: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original”.
Robinson’s talk is great. You should go watch it.
Remembering wonder
While Debbi and I prepared for parenthood, we wanted to make sure we filled our son’s head with a ton of awesome. As part of this process, we asked all of our friends what books from their childhood still brought warm feelings to their hearts? (In essence, after 20-30 years, which books continue to invoke the pleasures of childhood?)
It’s a good list of books. It’s interesting how often some books were listed, and also how you could chunk respondents into unlikely groups.
My mother taught high school English for years. One of the toughest obstacles she had to overcome was teaching kids how to write. They have stories. They have imagination. But they don’t trust themselves. They don’t know how to start.
While listening to Sir Ken’s plea for creativity, I remembered how my mother kept a raft of children’s books to both inspire, as well as illustrate how simple stories really were.
Some of these books really are timeless, as enjoyable for adults as they are for kids. However, if you’re having trouble breaking people out of the box, inspiring creativity, or helping people remember their sense of wonder, then a few choice children’s books scattered around your office might not be such a bad idea.
Even more, a few of them might serve as great teaching aids. You might cast Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree as The Innovation Tree. Harold and the Purple Crayon could be told as a lesson in creativity, tangible futures, or even navigation design.
The Books
The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein, was the book most frequently listed by our friends, by a wide margin. Silverstein’s other books, like Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends were also mentioned a lot.
Surprisingly, the next most fondly remembered book was PD Eastman’s Are You My Mother? People light up when they remember this book. It’s part of the “I can read ” series that includes a lot of Dr. Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, and Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose were also popular.
I’ve never read Where the Wild Things Are, but apparently everyone else loves this book by Maurice Sendak. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown also a crowd favorite.
The second tier included Stellaluna by Janell Cannon, Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.
Almost everyone had a favorite Little Golden Book. Or two.
Beyond that, the long tail wagged as follows:
- I’ll Always Love You by Hans Wilhelm
- Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch
- The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exup?ɬ
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