Much Too Bright: At Peace with the Struggle and Moving On

I recently spent my week in "paradise" at Nimrod Arts Program. The week long retreat has been my moment to be my "truest" self during the doctoral work I have been doing in educational leadership and the teaching I do during the school year. The past two years have been explosions of creativity, iced with lots of insights and back slaps for the work I did. This year wasn't the same. I had been feeling a little restless. Like maybe I wasn't learning as much as I could with my paintings.

I decided before going this year to experiment in some way on every painting I did.

This can be a really difficult way to approach your "art" whether it is art or teaching. By trying to get outside of the box on every painting I wasn't able to be "really" happy with much of the work. I questioned my personal vision, "What should I do next?" and my vision said, "Ummm, I don't know." I feel like I made strong paintings but they don't live fully in the world I envision for them. I struggled, all the way through. Then, when I tried an approach I was comfortable with, I felt like I let myself down. It was a tough summer.

I have felt like this with my teaching before. Actually, I have felt this way a lot. Especially in the past year. I was tring to grow this past year but much of what I tried failed. Then when I tried what I knew would work, I was surrounded with criticism from myself and others involved in my classroom. I felt like I wasn't learning.

So I have decided that I need to try something new this year. I am going to leave the classroom. I have decided to take a job as Childhood Development Specialist with the my Head Start program. I will supervise about 12 teachers and 12 assistants. I have been pursuing my doctorate in educational leadership. Now I will get a chance to see if I am really a transformative leader like I have been trying to learn to be in work and school. I will work with the leadership team to support teachers through professional development, team work, and relationships. Oh, and to try out some 21st Century skills with teachers.

It should be an interesting year. Now for the art. I wonder what will happen.

The painting above is titled: On the Edge

Much Too Bright: Fear and the Unknown

On Friday I posted on my Facebook status, "John is getting up the gumption to paint again. It is scary like 7 year old thunder storm scary." The hardest part is getting started again especially when the painting sitting unfinished on my easel is not working the way I hoped.

When I was a kid my Grandmother (the creative one) had themes that she would repeat to me. Only when I got older did I understand what they met. One theme was: Go West Young Man. When I got in my teenage and college years I understood, she was saying, "follow your dreams." or something close. Another theme was the nursery rhyme, "Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn, the sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn. Where is the boy who looks after the sheep? Under the haystack fast asleep." Was it just a nursery rhyme? Yes but, it was also along the same theme as Go west! Don't let life slip by.

Whenever I face possibility of picking up the brush again I feel a fear that is just enough to push painting out of my mind while school, or grad school, or life is happening, the fear of the un-built canvas. If I don't have any canvases built it is like a paralyzing feeling because I can't reach down, pick up the next painting and rush head long into it without thinking about the unknown. Deciding that I have to build them and committing to doing it is like another of my grandmother's theme's, The Flying Trapeze. She would sing the song and later I would think about how the amazing thing about the trapeze is the letting go of what you have and reaching out and grabbing for what you have to have faith will be there.

Going out to build those canvases is like reaching for that trapeze. I know the bar will be there, I know the paintings will come but I have to let go first and trust in the unknown future.

Much Too Bright: Much Too Bright

In an effort to more fully integrate my personhood I have decided to start posting my art on this blog. I was inspired by my good friend Jose Vilson, an artist, writer, teacher, thinker, poet, and all around brilliant person. Jose has always posted all of his content on one blog. He may have a post about teaching computation of the rise of an inclined plane, a post about teacher leadership, his latest poem, and a post about Tupac Shakur's birthday all within a week.
I decided that I like that because as I arranged all of these magazine clippings in my mind I began to make sense of Jose, teaching, creativity, and life in a new way. I learned, which I love. So here is my first post: Much Too Bright. This is my title image from my art blog. As I post about my art I may try to use Much Too Bright as the title then the post as the subtitle. We will see how this goes.

Now I will be able to talk about art more in education and learning more in my art, hopefully integrating my self more as I do it.

Creativity: Four Apples = ?

Sometimes I think of the teaching I do as training creative Jedi. Just think of me as Yoda for the pre-k set. From 3- 5 years old children experience a burst of creativity. Children are able to move from their imaginations to the real world seamlessly. It is the last outpost for the imagination. When kids get in kindergarten they start to hear adults first, and then their friends say, "I can't draw." "I'm not creative." "I can't sing." Then they doubt, "Can I sing? Am I creative? I want to fit in with my freinds, and none of them are creative, I should probably not be creative either. Piaget may have accidentally set this up by describing the preoperational stage of development as hierarchically lower than the concrete operational stage. It is as if a child who sees the world for what it is, (4 apples is 4 apples no matter what shape they are in) should not see the world for what it could be, (4 apples cut in to is 8 pieces and boiled can be applesauce).

Why isn't creativity important in our schools? The easy answer... it is hard to test. Concrete understanding of the world is easy to test. If you don't know that 4 apples is 4 apples then you don't get it.

There are some rubrics that attempt to judge creativity but in general, much of our appreciation for creativity, like her sister beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. In a recent discussion about creativity with someone on the decision making side of the education game I asked why creativity isn't considered a school readiness indicator. The response was, "It is the only indicator of school readiness that was deemed unreliable in several states." It was also said that many teachers are not creative enough to recognize creativity even if it bit them in the patootie. Well that isn't what was said but it is close enough. Why don't we expect teachers to be creative? Why don't we epect children to be creative?

On the dinner table of school, creativity is often considered the frosting on the cake. However, in life outside of school, it is often the difference between a home cooked meal and fast food. In "real" life, ie. life outside of the socially constructed definition of school, creativity is what makes things happen from finding cures for diseases to selling everything we know. We can't test the future ability to find a cure for cancer. To borrow a metaphor from my wife, in schools we only test if kids know the recipe not if they can cook.

Here is my question... Why?

Why aren't some teachers able to recognize creativity when they see it? Why isn't creatvity taught as a skill?
Any art teacher can tell you that much of making art has more to do with experimentation with and mastery of materials than with innate talent. We expect this in language arts, why not life? If we can teach kids the creative writing process, why can't we teach them the creative living process? If we are going to survive the "unknown" future we are going to need new ways of looking at problems to meet those challenges. If everybody knows the recipe but nobody knows how to cook, how are we going to live much less live well?

Image from: http://api.ning.com/files/vT0cCRtGT-WQgiNdKtNlO0lz6hW7GFWHp*nzcmE9zAIwGK4m4S6eUef8gY1KvKemdqqzhzkcxpQ0DsshcmVDrhwXw*xDLTwu/fingerpaint.jpg

Burning Down the House

On TLN and on my friend Bill's blog there has been a heated discussion of the role of creativity in schools. In a strange turn of events, I will support the opposite position for a minute. In our discussion of creativity it is important that we acknowledge the normative function of schooling. I am all for starting all over, burning down the house, and starting again by redefining the purpose and hence the accountability necessary for our schools. However, I think that some of the aspects of schooling that we might change might not be the parts that need to change. Creativity needs to be brought into our expectations, not basics pushed out. There have been numerous researchers who have found that the most effective way to teach at risk kids is to teach the basics and higher level thinking at the same time. Otherwise kids will not be ready to use either by the time they are adults.

I am sort of like the hammer that sees nails all over the place. I see creativity in many places where others don't.

Creativity sometimes substitutes for the word expression. I can see how teachers are fed up with the lack of expression of their humanity in their practice. In many cases it is not why we got into this gig. But, creativity and expression are not the same thing. Creativity is figuring how to get that test answer out of that kid as much as it is helping kids see past that test question.

Creativity is a big word with different meanings for a lot of people, sort of like schooling is different from learning. If all kids had to do was learn then they wouldn't need us, it is the schooling that makes teachers necessary. It is also why our creative expression is sometimes compromised for the sake of the an accountability tool that does not measure creativity. If the purpose of schooling moved past (but included) the basics standards we would probably have plenty of time for creativity, in fact we might be required to teach it 3 hours a day. Then what would we have to complain about?

The big issue seems to me to be that there is a conflict between what schools need to be about, and what they are held accountable for creating. These expectations are almost polar opposites now which can cause a great deal of stress for the people responsible for meeting conflicting expectations. We have a hunch about what kids will need in the future but right now, that doesn't matter. Right now what matters is the test. So we have to teach to both sides of the brain at the same time with out compromising either. It can be done, in fact it has been done in poor schools for years.

Image from: http://www.centralfpd.com/Portals/0/Clip%20Art/House%20on%20Fire02.GIF

What does creativity mean to a flat world?

Much of the political discourse surrounding education these days is based on the economic perspective of the business world that believes we need to prepare world class employees. Most of the jobs that I hope my students will pursue have not been created yet. I see the effects of technology and a “flatter” world as increasing the need for people skills that enable communication. I also see teaching students to be creative in their approach to their lives as not only an economic benefit to America but also as a benefit to humanity. Teaching with and to both sides of the brain, as described by Daniel Pink, (2006) in A Whole New Mind, are the keys to preparing kids for the future.

Left Brain	Right Brain
Function	Design
Argument	Story
Focus	Symphony
Logic	Empathy
Seriousness	Play
Accumulation	Meaning

Students who have explored and developed abilities using both sides of the brain will have the skills necessary to be successful in a future that is essentially unknown. In my classroom students design, tell stories, are empathetic, play and make meaning. They also problem solve, discuss, concentrate, use logic, and learn when to be serious. Creativity and collaboration is central to the skill sets students will need in the 21^st century. I foster these in my classroom by developing activities that require collaboration and that have group products as outcomes.