ITYS

 I told you so.  Creativity is the NEW idea in education.  I haven't seen it this strong since the late 60's and then the 70's. This country is on a role.

Newsweek.com

Well, at least 33.333% of that is true.  An alert and optimistic colleague broadcast the link to a current Newsweek article that I would have missed (I am a Time reader only because my dad seems to have purchased a subscription without end-date in the year before he died): The Creativity Crisis.

Read it. Pay careful attention to the populations studied and to the charts and graphs.  Do they apply to you?  Where?  Then ignore them.  Creativity as a learning "strategy" is important for ALL students ALL of the time.  Rephrase: We learn best when we can be creative.

Those of us who have been around for a third of a century are riding the crest of this wave. We know this truth about creativity in our ed-souls.  We had teachers who used film, art, drawing, drama and experience to teach us literature and writing.  Many of us continue these lessons today. Many of us are responsible for middle school, high school, state, district testing reports in reading.  But we are a retiring cohort - so we are often fog-horn voices in staff/administrative meetings about standards, test scores, and core curriculum.

WAKE UP!  We shout into tunneled ears (not tone deaf ears, because our administrators and colleagues also have creative passions..).

Do what my colleague did and broadcast this article to your staff list.  It does not make a flawless argument, but it makes a starting argument.

BE PREPARED!  OMG! - there might be another adjustment to standards if this innovative idea catches on...