Project introduces creativity, innovation
Daily Oklahoman
By Jim Stafford
Trade Talk

Sir Ken Robinson borrowed a line from an old Apple Computer advertising campaign Tuesday for a Downtown Rotary Club audience.
"Think different.”

OK, Robinson cleaned up the grammar and used the more proper "think differently” when he launched into a 30-minute monologue on the importance that creativity plays in our lives. Or should play in a world of changes wrought by the digital revolution.

"If we are to embrace (the changes) and prosper in these times, we have to think differently about our talents and abilities,” Robinson said. "And that really begins in education. We have to think very differently about the way we educate our children.

"The way we were educated will not do for the challenges they face.”

A native of England and resident of Los Angeles, Robinson serves as national adviser to the Oklahoma Creativity Project. That is a collaborative, statewide initiative that seeks to establish Oklahoma as a "world-renowned” center of creativity and innovation.

So, the Creativity Project is dreaming up ways to introduce creativity and innovation into Oklahoma's education, culture and commerce. The creative process sometimes flows against the current, especially in education, Robinson said, who is a consultant for governments and industries worldwide.

Consider the unrelenting push to prepare Oklahoma students for standardized tests, he said. Some people call it "teaching to the test.”

"(We) are being hampered, I believe, by our current process of standardized testing assessment, which is having the opposite effect of what we need, which is to encourage innovation and creativity,” Robinson said. "I don't mean to say that standardized tests are bad in themselves, but when they become an obsession in education, they become destructive.

"Teaching is an art form. It's not an assembly line.”

But no one wants their child left behind.

In fact, I listened to Robinson's humorous and very appealing appeal to ensure that creativity and innovation are factored into everything we do and still felt like I had been left behind.

I'm not sure that I got it because I still don't know how creativity can supersede the multiplication tables, for instance.

"In education today we are still in that industrial model where kids are lined up in the desk and there is one answer, and over time it's just ‘let's squelch those ideas out of them,'” said Susan McCalmont, who is involved with the Oklahoma Creativity Project and also is chairman of the Oklahoma A+ Schools, which seeks to introduce the arts into the everyday learning process in schools. "So how do you find ways to work within the parameters of state law, federal law to meet those (testing) requirements but also find ways to encourage creativity and innovation within the classroom?”

Think different. OK, think differently.

LOVE THAT!! I have heard about this man's name in my grad classes and really want to read his books. I think that is alot of what's behind our Oklahoma A+ ideals (google it for more info!! LOVE IT)

as for creativity, I am all for it! I teach preschool and alot of other teachers have "craft" ideas. but in my art center/easel, we have free form art (collage supplies, tempera paint, water colors, etc.

I feel the same about creative thinking. When a child gives, what we percieve as a "wrong answer", and you give them a chance to explain why.....it usually makes perfect sense!! they are just great at thinking outside the box.

this is why I love what I do. giving these children the SPARK they need to see that education and school is fun (unfortuantely, by next year, in kindergarten, they cease to see the fun)

getting off soapbox now~~~but thanks for sharing that article!!

teacher girl, I think the reason the kids "cease to see the fun" is because they are now being presssured to do more rigorous school work earlier because of NCLB mandates. I am a high school Bio I teacher, and many of my students are not exposed to the full area of Biology. I no longer teach the plants and animals like we were all taught in school. I now spend 75 % of the year teaching the material that the legislature and department of education say the students must know to get into college. Many of my rural students are not going to college. Instead they are going to vo-tech, or will be farmers, welders, etc...
I believe our system now makes the schools fail. If we are allowed to teach a more well rounded curridulum, then we will see success for future students and they will see the fun again.
The parents, and community must also rise up and help the schools get the needed materials for expanded learning. Many want to complain that education costs too much, but they don't realize that the material costs keep escalating along with everything else. A new Biology I textbook now costs around $60 per student, then calculate the cost of lab materials and you begin to see the cost of education.

I will now get off my box and let all you figure this out.

Governor Henry to LAUNCH OCP at Oklahoma Science Museum
February 8, 2008

The Oklahoma Creativity Project
WASHINGTON 2008-01-25 A Thursday press conference in Washington, D.C. announced Americans believe public schools are lacking in imaginative and innovative thinking. Oklahoma is taking steps to encourage creativity in education through a new initiative called the Oklahoma Creativity Project. KOSU's Gail Banzet reports.

KOSU: The Oklahoma Creativity Project (2008-01-25)

there will be an AWESOME creativity collaboration in edution at uco friday!! where the infamous sir ken robinson will be speaking.......FYI