In an article in Newsweek “The Creativity Crisis,” Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman describe a study of people who received MacArthur genius awards. In the study, researchers discovered that MacArthur recipients spent time in their childhoods creating “paracosms,” or alternative fantasy worlds. These kids visited their fantasy worlds repeatedly, often creating their own unique languages…
Henry David Thoreau said, it’s not what you look at, it’s what you see. “When life brings you lemons, make lemonade.” “There’s another opportunity around the next corner.” “Better stick to the straight and narrow.” “Everything feels heavy.” These four aphorisms all reveal very different perspectives on life. We can read hundreds of self-help books…
Teaching has always been a creative playground for me–a way to explore things that fascinate me and experiment with new ideas. Peter Vaill wrote, “The essential starting point of artistic consciousness is acknowledging that something is more than I can possibly know.” That place of the unknown is mysterious and juicy. We don’t know what…
This is true for all of us. We valiantly search for the explanation, the description, the words. But when those words aren’t there, we unconsciously drop into another part of our brain–the part of our brain that works in metaphor. Metaphor allows us to understand and speak about things that are unknown, vague, or abstract….
Learning, by its very nature, moves us beyond established systems of knowledge. It takes us beyond our comfort zones. It’s no wonder autocratic societies limit education and a free press. Incremental change is important, but the world is desperate for real revolution. We need revolutionary acts of teaching and learning. Learning happens because we human…
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