Memorandum submitted by Jean Hendrickson, Executive Director, Oklahoma A+ Schools(r), University of Central Oklahoma

 

1. The Need for Creative Schooling

We live in a world where our very survival now hinges on our ability to create and innovate. At no other time in history has there been such an opportunity to truly transform the institutions that are responsible for preparing our future generations. The role of technology and communication, the access to information, and the direct impact that the actions of our fellow citizens of the world have on our lives have moved the conversation from theoretical to practical. Schools must enable students to utilize both sides of their brains, collaborate for best solutions, and creatively engage in advancing civilization. All of this, while adapting to change in ways that schools have never experienced before. For example, sociologists tell us that our young workforce will change jobs every three to four years, and are likely to change professions multiple times during their working years. It is critical that our educational institutions prepare our students for an increasingly global, interactive, and creative environment.

 

2. The Need for Collaboration

This is not a task to be done in isolation. Educators must sit at the table with the best and brightest minds of business, community, the arts and government in order to provide the kind of dynamic schooling that will fill the needs for our global society. It is ludicrous to suppose that schools should operate without the benefit of the millennia of culture and experience that precede them. With great resources housed in cultural museums, opera houses, libraries, music halls and institutions of higher learning, it seems obvious that partnerships between a society's schools and society's other institutions make the best possible sense and use of resources.

 

3. The Need for Inclusivity

The benefits are enormous. Engaging our citizens in this effort may well be the most important undertaking of this century. We must enable all stakeholders, all voices, and all interests to truly participate in securing the future role of free societies as leaders in economic, cultural, and social equity and excellence.

 

 

4. The Role of Technology

Technology plays another role, bringing likeminded people together in more cost-effective, timesaving and creative ways than ever before. To take advantage of this phenomenon, organizations across the world must first, find each other, and then, they must be willing to share research, experience and practices. Creative Partnerships in London has been an organization willing to do the work of reaching out and sharing. By reaching out to Oklahoma A+ Schools, an entire body of research and practice is now at the disposal of forward-thinking educators with a true desire to maximize the time they have with the students they teach. In order to best maximize this time, partnerships are crucial. This has enabled teachers in Oklahoma, United States and London, England, to discover their commonalities and make connections in ways that even a few years ago were unimaginable.

 

5. The Unimaginable

"Unimaginable" is truly a key word. Jared Diamond, noted professor of physiology and author of the masterful Guns, Germs and Steel, reminds us that, while some inventions, such as the cotton gin and the infamous atom bomb, have been systematically imagined, described and developed, "many or most inventions were developed by people driven by curiosity or by a love of tinkering, in the absence of any initial demand for the product they had in mind. Once a device had been invented, the inventor then had to find an application for it." (page 242) Now, that takes imagination! Dr. Diamond lists such inventions as the internal combustion engine, the electric light bulb, and the phonograph as examples of invention preceding use. It is precisely because we cannot imagine when and how the next magnificent breakthrough for civilization will occur, or whether it will take the form of a symphony, an equation, or a medical treatment that we are duty-bound to provide multiple learning pathways for ourselves and our young.

 

6. The Definition of Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson defines creativity as "the process of having original ideas." This process, in the practices of A+ Schools, is active, collaborative and interdisciplinary. Our work shows that when teachers are deliberately brought together to consider the entire curriculum that is to be taught to the students, better ideas emerge. The instruction becomes more motivating and experiential. There is a snowball effect where, with engaged teachers we find engaged students, leading to more engaged parents and a higher level of input from the surrounding community. This kind of environment is cultivated and supported by an entire network of professionals in the A+ organization so that no one needs to feel alone and unsupported in the common work of education. So, simply agreeing that creativity is important and that it entails work is not nearly enough to sustain best practices over time in schools. Creativity has to be nurtured and built, using everything we have learned from yesterday's failed experiment to craft some next steps for today. We do not live in a world any longer that depends on getting solely the "right answer." We live in a world that depends upon getting the "best answer," and in order to arrive at best answers, we must use the creative process.

 

7. The Need for Support for Creative Partnerships

In fact, of all of our esteemed institutions, our governments should be in the lead in supporting creative partnerships between educational institutions and cultural organizations. In Oklahoma, as the research has continued to grow in support of the work that A+ Schools is doing, the number of cultural, business and educational organizations that choose to work with us has skyrocketed. It is a very affirming suggestion that one's resources will be put to good use if in partnership with Oklahoma A+ Schools. The schools are seen as willing to go above and beyond the norm, as predisposed to think differently about ways to get different - and better - results. As these partnerships have grown and flourished, supported by our research results, our state governmental leaders have become increasingly supportive of our work. So, having begun as an initiative of private foundation support, we are in Year Five enjoying an unprecedented level of public support as well. This bodes well for our continued ability to participate in rich, global discussions such as this one. Indeed, another of our A+ Essentials(tm) is Collaboration. By enabling the institutions ready to think differently to do just that, I believe we are making great strides in bettering our odds of getting globally significant, civilization-saving solutions to currently intractable world issues.

 

One of the most fruitful and promising partnerships that has emerged for Oklahoma over the last several years has been with Creative Partnerships in London, England. Having a mechanism for genuine exchange between teachers and artists in the UK and in North American has provided fertile soil for new ideas and methodologies to flourish. Such partnerships, initiated with face-to-face experiences and sustained with ongoing electronic dialogue, has given stature and esteem to our teachers and schools in ways impossible without such a global basis. Just as interdisciplinary studies encourage fresh ideas and ways of knowing, intercontinental relationships build ground for inquiry into practice that places the impetus for change right where it belongs - on the teachers in front of our children. This supportive, invigorating method of partnering with like-minded individuals compels healthy instructional practices. This is no time to diminish support for creative initiatives. If, in fact, we are living in a world whose survival depends on creative solutions as stated at the onset of this paper, now is the time to give courageous support to educational enterprises that cultivate creative partnerships.

 

July 2007