Tuesday's Key Note: Creativity and the Emerging Face of Education... from BS

Tuesday’s Key Note Panel: Creativity and the Emerging Face of Education

Wow! I have never met a person like Elizabeth Streb. She is ON FIRE with the energy of movement. Visit her site at http://www.strebusa.org/

She was one of four engaging speakers sharing their expectations for schools of the future. Perhaps the most unusual background, she is a renowned choreographer with a degree in Physics, hosting a dance and performing arts experience in New York City. Her most powerful suggestions arrived in three parts:
- To seek creativity and innovation, begin with seemingly impossible questions
o She offered some of her own, such as, “How can I make two objects occupy the same space at the same time?” When you watch her videos you will see how she manages this.
- Read the title of every book in the book store in the section that interests you
o Hmmm…. An interesting idea. Even before you can begin to organize your own thoughts, Streb recommends that you survey the things that interest you to form the contemporary scope, a conceptual framework
- Pursue what interests you, and what comes naturally to you
o How many times, as a child, was I warned, “Don’t take the course of least resistance!” Elizabeth Streb instead recommends that young people do just that, to pursue their interests – and, after earning my own degrees, as well as supporting other people in the pursuit of advanced degrees, I couldn’t agree more. Often, the course of least resistance will guide you to the right place for you to do your best learning and make your greatest contribution.

Other sound morsels that were appetizing included:
Mike McCauley, creative director of a Major Chicago Communications agency:
o Seek out your own cathedrals in finding creativity and innovation
§ What do you revere?
§ What has long-standing significance in your own history?
§ Use these ideas to frame your work and ambitions
Mike shared a heartfelt experience he had of creating a Hero’s Welcome for the LA Marathon. He described Mile 20, where even the heroic of heart struggle with quitting, his company placed an inspirational experience, in the form of a short Tunnel in which played the theme from Rocky, propelled people forward. It worked, in a way that was far greater than his original vision.


When building the alchemy of the creative team, Mike also suggested that you add and remove people, and not just those people with the right titles, but those who bring in a different perspective. He recommended a secretary on a distant floor, or a person in the lobby.

Mary Cullinane, the classroom teacher and assistant principal that Microsoft hired to help with the design of the Philidelphia School of the Future, was also a panel member. One of the most engaging descriptions she offered was her transition to the Microsoft culture. Not only do employees all have an office with a door, but her office and Bill Gate’s office were very similar. The Microsoft work setting is also designed around conversational spaces, where people can gather around ideas, and draw in contributions from passers-by. What Cullinane found most interesting about her new setting was “thinking time.” The Microsoft culture expects that people will sit and think. It almost looks like you are doing nothing, Cullinane noted, and this is not only ‘OK’, but expected from people.