Creativity, education, and the future of our children

I'm about to share with you a 20-minute video of one of the most important presentations I have ever had the privilege of witnessing.

This is for all of you home-schoolers out there, for anyone who has children, and for anyone at all, actually, who is interested in hearing one person's perspective on what is happening around the world today in the field of education. Laced with a goodly amount of British humor, Sir Ken Robinson's lecture is chock full of succinct and salient points. It is one that I intend to view again and again.

Here it is ... ...



Many thanks to Steven, who himself is a schoolteacher, for introducing me to such a remarkable individual in this post.


I mentioned that it is laced with British humor. Well, it is, and one of Sir Ken's points, as I recall, is that - paraphrasing here - by the time a person reaches college professorial status, he regards his body as simply a means of transporting his head around. I found this terribly amusing, and it reminded me of one of my husband's many stories about one of his college professors.

This professor was very shy, it seemed, and - after entering the room and placing his coat and hat on the desk and calling roll with his head hidden behind the roster the whole time, he would turn to the chalkboard and begin lecturing all the while writing appropriately corresponding equations. This would continue until the bell rang signaling the end of class, whereupon he would immediately turn around, gather up his books, hat and coat, and exit the classroom without once making eye contact or speaking with a single student.

Another little quirk was that, just before walking to his desk, he would peek behind the door. It was only after he had satisfied that bit of curiosity that he would continue his routine.

One day a student wondered out loud to nobody in particular, "What would happen if I wrote 'Boo!' on the chalkboard behind the door?" He was encouraged to go ahead with this experiment, and the next day the whole class arrived early in eager anticipation of the test results.

The hour arrived. The professor appeared, looked behind the door, saw what was written, and quickly disappeared. He wasn't seen on campus again that day!

[My husband always insisted that this was a true story. Am not entirely sure I believed him. Have just a wonderful story that I'll share with you another time about an absent-minded professor, but it's not appropriate for this post.]

Scattered thoughts and comments

Astros ...


We lost last night to the Rockies, our first loss in nine games. It was a combination of Moeller (starting pitcher) not being at his best and a lack of timely hitting with runners (and there weren't that many) in scoring position.

Everyone else above us in the wild card race lost, as well, except for the Brewers, who pulled their game out in the 11th inning. So, we didn't lose any ground, but time is of the essence.



Lobbying ...

(Definition ... to promote or secure the passage of [as legislation] by influencing public officials; to attempt to influence or sway [as a public official] toward a desired action.)


I guess the first time I was even vaguely aware of such a concept was when I was in undergraduate school at Northern Michigan University in the late 1950's. Dr. Hardin was appointed as the new President of the University. He was appointed over other candidates because it was thought that he could influence the state legislature to appropriate significantly more monies Northern's way. 'They' were correct. He did.


One of the main problems I have with lobbyists is that they have to be paid, and their paycheck comes out of whatever funds they have been lobbying for! Kind of defeats the purpose, it seems to me.

Then we get into 'agents' and 'special interest groups' ... all synonyms for lobbyists, I think.


How about 'pork barrel' spending? These are nothing but bribes, in my opinion, to get a specific legislator to vote a certain way on a bill. "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" type of thinking.

What about federal subsidies to farmers to 'reward' them for not growing corn, to cite just one example? I shudder to think of the millions (billions?) being 'thrown around' here!


And speaking of 'lobbying', how about all of the amateur lobbyists who cried out for various school closings because Gustav might strike their area?!?


When I was teaching in the far north, we had 'x' days of classes scheduled during the school year, 'x' number of which allowed for 'snow days'. Anything beyond that, we had to extend the school year.

You'll have to keep in mind, now, that we never actually even started school until the day after Labor Day. So, the last day of school, depending on how many 'snow days' we'd had, could have been well into the third week of June if not later!



Politics ...


Both conventions are now history. (Thank you, Lord, for all -- even the littlest -- blessings!)


However, there is now, undoubtedly, added interest in this year's presidential election. An 'unknown' has been thrown into the fray. If this weren't so terribly serious, I'd be falling onto the floor and roaring with incessant laughter!


Sarah Palin in a bikini? (If she can still wear a bikini and look good all at the same time, more power to her, I say!) I wonder if Joe Biden would deign to appear in a like pose? (Actually, to my mind, any of such pix are completely irrelevant and should have no application whatsoever to a presidential campaign. Accordingly, they should be summarily dismissed and even disregarded for the sexism that they portray!)


My granddaughter's comment, upon realizing that there were some problems in Mrs. Palin's family, said (something like), "Well, I guess that's not a 'cookie cutter' family." Out of the mouths of babes, right? (This is a 12-yr-old 'babe'.)

Of course that's not a cookie cutter family! (And you know what? Even if it were, the powers that be would still be looking for **** to fuel their vitiocity.)


All of you who have been reading my posts for any period of time know how much I enjoy originality in phrasing of words, and I'd like to share with you this one, posted as a comment within the past week or so on another blogsite.

Somewhat encapsulated, it goes, " ... the epidemic of foot-in-mouth-after-stepping-in-cowpile disease ... still plagues our political discourse ... "

Taken entirely out of context, of course, but I wanted that quote to stand on its own. That man needs an agent/lobbyist!



The Suite Life of Zack and Cody ...


Can you believe that these two very cute kids have their own website? (Or perhaps their agents/lobbyists have.)

I found it 'cruising the net', what else? However, I just tried to update it, and it remained the same. Anyhoo, for what it's worth, here's the link.

Good luck!

Creativity vs. intelligence vs. age

"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young." W. Somerset Maugham


That is an intriguing statement, isn't it?


I have almost always thought of genuine creativity as being most readily available to the very young. See my post, "A child ... is an original ...", published June 30th, for some of my more extensive thoughts on this.


[To support that view, when I was studying for my Master's degree in education from Purdue University in the early 60's, I proposed for my thesis a creative writing study based on 6-yr. olds -- first grade. It was 'pooh-poohed' by everyone except my major professor (bless her heart), who told me to go for it!

I did, and was going to publish the results here. However, upon blowing all the cobwebs off of my thesis, I discovered that the results were much more complex than what I had remembered, SO ... unless you really want me to encapsulate and expound further on same in another post ... this will be the last word on that subject.

I should add that we had to do an analytical study on the correlation between creativity and intelligence as a result of this.]



Then, somewhat later (7/23), I published an Art Linkletter (ish) type post, which you might enjoy, if you didn't catch it earlier.

This one, published on the 18th of July ... 5th paragraph ... , is taken from Matthew East's telling of an outing with his 5-yr. old daughter.

Even more recently, another father posted about his very young daughter exclaiming, "Daddy, I was so happy this morning it felt like my heart was smiling."

From the mouths of children. Oh, how sweet!



And then we have these unique, one of a kind utterances, published just this past couple of days from a 43-year old 'youngster' in Australia ... ...

Is your "life painted in pastel shades ...", or is it "a growing piece of art in bold colors?"

"Is a nibble at the table of life sufficient to understand and appreciate the whole four courses?"



Folks, I have been told (and I thank all of you who have taken the time to comment now and then) that the way I put my words together in trying to recapture my thoughts and memories is unique ... I hope that it is. And, if it is, may it ever be so!

Another rant

Two days in a row? What's going on here, anyway?!?

Well, I had the car radio on, that's what happened. Why was I in the car? Well, I took another set of customers to the airport, that's why.

All might have been OK if it hadn't been for the fact that all of the sports stations were discussing basketball, which is WAY down the totem pole on my list of interests. So, I started channel surfing and happened to catch the Laura Ingraham show.

A guest host, and what he had to say wasn't too obnoxious, so I thought, "What the hey! This might be semi-interesting, and perhaps not so mind-numbing that I would be tempted to take a nap while driving back to the house." I stayed tuned.

The main topic of conversation was, of course, the primaries being held today in North Carolina and Indiana. Some interviews were conducted, opinions expressed, etc., and then a commercial came on. (You know how the volume always seems to be louder during commercials? It not only 'seems to be', it IS!! Supposedly illegal, but everyone [and his/her proverbial aunt and uncle] does it.)


So what's got my dander up today?

The darned commercial, that's what!! (In retrospect, I guess I should have just listened to some good music -- I've got a bunch of my "Favorites" programmed in -- , but I didn't, and here we are.)


The commercial was about the school board elections coming up in Katy (a pretty good-sized city just west of Houston) this Saturday. "... ... if you vote for these three candidates, the Katy ISD will have a Republican majority for the first time in twenty years ... ... good old conservative values, against big government, lowering taxes ... ..."


NOwhere in this commercial did I hear anything about the candidates' qualifications other than their affiliation with a political party. Disgraceful, in my opinion!! I couldn't wait to get home to get started on this post.


Some 22-23 years ago, I was asked to run for the Alief (That's where I live. It's a MUCH smaller community just southwest of Houston.) ISD school board. I declined. I knew that I was fully-qualified, but I had so many other things going on in my life at that time that I didn't think I could handle one more.

I don't know if I would have had to declare a political affiliation to run. If that had been the case -- and, if I could not have stated 'Independent' on my application -- I would have declined simply out of principle.


It is my firm belief that politics -- as in 'Republican', 'Democrat', whatever -- should have absolutely NO role whatsoever in education!! I'll stand by that statement until I am unable to utter another word.


I cannot even begin to tell you how distressed I was by that commercial. It made me want to go out and run an ad! (And certainly, if I were a Katy voter, I would look at all of the candidates very carefully. The ad even makes me wonder if ANY of them are 'qualified'?!?)

Whom to believe?

You know what? I really don't remember what it was like as an "almost teen-ager", other than I was most concerned about my face, my lack of "boobies", all sorts of social problems that exist today, as well, but back 50-60 years ago, those problems were at the forefront. Today, it seems, they are almost secondary to the seeming constant bombardment on all sides from what I might almost describe as "incessant" battering/badgering/interjecting/interfering by the media --- and, yes, I am including the Internet!

Whom is an adolescent to believe? Their peers? Their teachers? Their parents? Their beloved Internet? "Reality" TV shows?

I heard a story recently that inspired this writing. (The story, by the way, is true. Sometimes, I think, when people hear that it is a "story", they automatically assume that it is "made up". This story is not made up, O.K?)

It seems that a pre-teen, when quizzed about how school was going, responded that --- in her History class (the class was talking about the current Presidential election campaign) --- her teacher had suggested that Obama was a spy for the terrorists ... ... ... ... !!!???

Surely NOT, you question. Now, tho, it appears that said pre-teen couldn't really remember what was actually said, who said it... not sure, but she thinks her teacher said it wasn't true ... that Obama was only one example. One example of WHAT, for crying out loud!!

Same pre-teen could not remember any of the other candidates discussed, or what was said about them. Is that to be expected, or what?!

Unfortunately, I believe, many (if not most) adults today would utter some of the same comments! I have been recently reading blog/post sites that are (to say the least!) disturbing. How should I expect a still-to-be-formed young person to try & cull it all out, when I --- as a supposed adult --- have problems.

I believe that a letter to the school district involved is called for. This should be a discreet inquiry, but one that, in my opinion, should not be left un-addressed.

As a public school teacher for nearly twenty years, I was ALWAYS aware that what I said (or did) might influence young minds for many years to come. Perhaps this young person was simply "dozing" in class (thinking of her"whatevers"). Perhaps the teacher actually did utter some unthinking comments, really unaware of the potential import/damage they might cause.

Perhaps same pre-teen was influenced in her remarks by whatever other influences might have been going on in her life ... parents/friends/TV programs/Internet ... whatever prompted her statements must not go unnoticed, in my opinion.