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When is “Wonderful!” Not So Wonderful?
“You did a good job.” “You did an incredibly job!” Which of these statements is most helpful to children? It depends. Recent research by Eddie Brummelman and colleagues (including my amazing friend...
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School of Doodle
Not long ago I wrote about how depressed I was by a Washington Post article titled, “Can Kickstarter save arts education?” It was full of gloomy statistics: Nearly one in 10 U.S. secondary schools...
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Creativity and the Common Core
Are the Common Core State Standards stifling creativity in students and teachers? Some current commentary seems to suggest they are. Of course, the difficulties do not lie in the standards themselves,...
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Who’s the Genius Around Here?
What does it take to be a creative physicist? A successful philosopher? A psychologist? Does it take a special ability, an aptitude that can’t be taught? Or do you believe many people could accomplish...
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Are You Bored? Brilliant?
What would life be like if you used your phone a little less? Would you be bored? Brilliant? That’s the question posed by the podcasters at New Tech City in their Bored and Brilliant project, subtitled...
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Hooray for Wales!
The small country of Wales has just done something big. The government of Wales, in conjunction with the Welsh Arts Council has issued a 5-year action plan titled Creative Learning Through the Arts: An...
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Art in Unexpected Places
When is a utility box not a utility box? When it’s a work of public art. My home city, Ann Arbor, Michigan, has some of the best looking traffic signal utility boxes you’ll ever see. Thanks to a...
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Vacation=More Creativity? Maybe
Take a vacation and increase your creativity! Sound too good to be true? Perhaps not. I had to smile reading an article by researchers from The Netherlands, Finland, and Germany in which they examined...
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Fallonventions: How Can We Resist?
OK, I’ll admit it. Staying up late to watch the beginning of Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show is one of my guilty pleasures. I know I should go to bed. I know I can see videos the next day. But Fallon’s...
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The BreakThrough Junior Challenge: Relativity in 7 Minutes
How would you like to explain the Theory of Relativity? In seven minutes? On video? That’s the task Ryan Chester took up when entering the Breakthrough Junior Challenge. Not only did Ryan succeed in...
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Bratz to Bold: Thanks, Make!
I wasn’t allowed to have Barbie dolls as a child. My mother—ahead of her time, for sure—objected to doll’s the unnatural proportions. She did not want anything in our house giving the message that her...
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Are Immigrants More Creative?
Eric Weiner’s recent essay in the Wall Street Journal, “The Secret of Immigrant Genius,” suggested an unusual take on today’s immigrant debate—How many of the world’s greatest creative achievements...
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Still Curious After All These Years
In my last post I said it seems questioning is in the air—and so it is. What should arrive in my latest ASCD Education Update but a newsletter whose headline reads “The Wonder Years.” If you are an...
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What Will You Invent?
Are you in the long-winter doldrums? Are you interested getting sparking your students’ creativity and having a little fun at the same time? The Imagination Foundation’s 2016 Inventors’ Challenge may...
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Math and Art: A Match Made for Schools
Theater and dance for teaching math? Math for teaching art? Arts integration is not only a great idea, but a great idea in the news. A recent story in the Education section of the Washington Post...
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Runway of Dreams, and Inspiration
If you were a parent whose child asked to wear jeans to school on “Jeans Day,” what would you say? No problem, right? What if that child had a disability that meant he could not put jeans on...
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Play Matters
I don’t typically address politics here, but in recent days it seems that is all there is. Like a lot of people in the U.S., I’ve been pretty despondent all week. So many years after I was a high...
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Who’s Smart?
All creativity involves some risk. We know that. Any time we try something new, there is risk of failure, of ridicule, or getting ourselves in over our heads. And yet, if we want to make creative...
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Nevertheless She Persisted—in Creativity
Today I’m wearing my “Nevertheless She Persisted” tee shirt, tribute to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s political persistence, and the persistence of so many women who have needed determination to...
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Go to High School, Make a Record
I love it when I hear stories of students whose creative contributions astound me and bring me hope. That’s how I felt when I read about the students in the Creative Musical Arts and Sciences program...
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