Head in the Clouds

A New Movement Is Born!

Before I tell you what my 10-year-0ld daughter said the other day, I should let you know that at school she's been studying the Latin roots of words. And she loves it.

So, the other day she was doing new combinations of ballet moves around the living room, interspersed with playing the waltz from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty on both the piano and the recorder. And she was attacking me with the occasional sudden hug. And she was wiggling around doing something over by the dining room table—I forget what.

"Mom," she said, "I'm a hyperactivist."

I'm ready to take up the cause.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Creativity now is as important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.

—Sir Ken Robinson

We've just heard advice from an Oscar winner on encouraging creativity in our kids. While we're on the subject, here's a question: Are our schools encouraging children's creativity—or are they killing it?

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson addresses this question in a funny and insightful talk on TED.com. I highly recommend it. In case the full 20-minute version seems too long, you can listen to about 9 minutes of highlights that someone put together on YouTube. If you want to hear more from Robinson, check out Riz Khan's interview with him; it's  in two parts, here and here, each about 11 minutes long.

As the mother of a girl who dances, I was particularly touched by Robinson's story about dancer and choreographer Gillian Lynne. If you don't listen to anything else, you still might want to listen that part, starting at 15 minutes into the TED talk.

The diagnosis for Lynne, who couldn't focus or sit still in class as an 8-year-old back in the 1930s? "Gillian isn't sick. She's a dancer."

I add a heartfelt thank you to the teachers, principal, and staff at my daughter's school for encouraging creativity in their students every day.

Oscar Advice

  
My favorite Oscar speech tonight was by Michael Giacchino, who won for his original score for the movie Up: 

When I was ... I was nine and I asked my dad, "Can I have your movie camera? That old, windup 8-millimeter camera that was in your drawer?" And he goes, "Sure, take it." And I took it and I started making movies with it and I started being as creative as I could, and never once in my life did my parents ever say, "What you're doing is a waste of time." Never.

And I grew up, I had teachers, I had colleagues, I had people that I worked with all through my life who always told me what you're doing is not a waste of time. So that was normal to me that it was OK to do that.

I know there are kids out there that don't have that support system, so if you're out there and you're listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it. It's not a waste of time. Do it. OK?

For more on encouraging creativity in kids, see my next post.