Creativity as “disobedient thought” — wonder sparked from our human drive to question.
Questioning is the very source of creative thought. When we get into a cul-de-sac where ritual and formula do not give us the answer, then we begin to question. This beautiful, beautiful human ability. Probably the most precious thing to nurture. — Welby Ings
In his TEDxAuckland talk, “Disobedient Thinking,” Welby Ings examines a bit of the nature of typical schooling — systems biasing compliance over creativity. What is the record of time that school students are able to explore the questions that originate from within them, rather than from the initiation of an adult? How are we nurturing the nature of creativity which is disobedient thought? How are we nurturing citizens who believe questioning is actually at the heart and core of deep citizenship?
I love school. And I love learning and education even better than I love school… even better than I love myself.
That love is what drives my learning and education about school.
Many of you readers know that I wanted to be a pediatric oncologist for much of my life – from about age seven until about age 20. For years and years, more recently, I’ve told a story about how my career pursuit shifted from children’s cancer research and science to educational research and science.
Now, I realize, if I zoom out far enough, I haven’t really pivoted at all. If cancer is basically the mutation of great and healthy cells into devastating and unhealthy cells, then school may very well be like a human organism filled with virtually countless cells – many and most of them being the healthy cells of learning and education, and only a few being the unhealthy cells of certain school attributes gone bad.
I’m committed to helping ensure that the healthy cells in the body win out. And so I am willing to aggressively pursue educational and learning research. To wake up at ridiculous hours to read, write, and study. To tire myself and to experience considerable dead ends, frustrations, and temporary failures. And to learn from the successes and discoveries.
And to not let any of the successes or failures define me. But rather to steer me onward. Because I love learning and education far more than I love school or myself.
Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert for this prompted reflection.
I think it’s very important to never stop learning. There’s a tendency, especially when I’m busy and working for clients, to just become a machine that churns out work that builds a portfolio of clones. There’s a certain comfort and security with repeating what you know and giving the client what they expect. But it can also get boring and unsatisfying. It can feel stagnant. I think that curiosity and going into the unknown is what makes work interesting. I love problem solving, but not when I’ve already solved the problem.
Modifications in brackets made by me, practicing “association” as an innovation skill, and hypothetically creating a riffed quote for myself:
I think it’s very important to never stop learning. There’s a tendency, especially when [we’re] busy and working [in the ambitious school-calendar cycles], to just become a machine that churns out work that builds a portfolio of clones. There’s a certain comfort and security with repeating what you know and giving the [student(s)] what they expect. But it can also get boring and unsatisfying. It can feel stagnant. I think that curiosity and going into the unknown is what makes [school and learning and education] interesting. I love problem solving, but not when [we’ve] already solved the problem.
Today, Lower School students at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School participated in the Cardboard Challenge, inspired by Caine’s Arcade.
People from 41 countries took part – more than 78,900 participants. Only two organizations in the state of Georgia (U.S.A.) flexed their scissors, spread their tape, and exercised their design muscles for the Cardboard Challenge. Thanks to collaboration among the faculty at Mount Vernon, and thanks to the creative confidence of our students, the Mustangs were in that number!
Mary Cantwell (@scitechyedu) set up a time-elapse camera to record the coordinated, staged efforts of five grade levels working in 45-minute shifts. So, we should be able to see the action from start to finish before too long.
Here’s the message Mary sent to invite the architects and engineers:
The DEETS:
Challenge: Students will be challenged to imagine and create the metropolises of the world! (decided we needed more than just ATL)
Time:45 min blocks of building/play time; Sign Up Here [link removed] if you want to participate
Do B4 Arriving: Partner/Trio groups – have them research famous/interesting buildings/structures from around the world, plan out what they want to build, sketch it (with boxes in mind), and arrive on the CityBox party with a Plan of Action
AND/OR The HR selects a city together – plans out what they will build to represent different aspects of the city.
AND/OR The HR decides to create and build a fictional city/town and plans out all they want and need in this city (could be connected to a novel study, a story being studied, a SS moment in history)
Show Up. Respect what has already been created. Stake out your space. Get your boxes, imagine, create, play.
What an amazing sight to see the buildings take shape and form! At carpool this afternoon, I asked my typical question to a bunch of the students: What was the most incredible thing you did and learned today?
Usually I get a myriad of responses. Today, though, they ALL talked about their buildings – the Coliseum, Hancock Building, Notre Dame, Hippodrome, and the Taj Mahal, just to name a few. Zach even explained to me how he built the Burj Khalifa – the tallest skyscraper in the world!
it's about learning 