Letter From Mark: We’re Thankful for Creativity
Dear Right At School Parents and Friends When I was in the second grade I made a picture of a mushroom using string, glue and magazine photos. It was the ugliest thing ever! Still, my mom kept it up on her kitchen wall for over a decade. My high school friends were merciless about it […]
Letter From Mark: If It’s 2013, Why Do I Keep Writing 2011 On My Checks?
…and how did I completely miss 2012? Are the years going faster as our kids (and we) get older? And while I am at it, when we were in elementary school, didn’t the time between Christmas and New Years last longer? Didn’t it seem like weeks between the holidays? Today not only am I back […]
Letter from Mark: Stimulate Their Senses With Modern Art
Creativity scholars increasingly point to perception as a key to creativity. Gregory Berns of Emory University argues that to think of things differently, which is the first step toward creativity; we need to stimulate our senses with phenomena our brains have yet to encounter. This allows our minds to move beyond our typical way of thinking […]
Letter from Mark: What Do You Get When You Cross An Elephant and A Fish?
I’ll answer in a minute. Putting things together that don’t usually go together is an excellent way to stimulate creativity in children (and adults). It’s called Synectics. The word Synectics comes from the Greek and refers to joining together different and apparently irrelevant elements. Synectics are used in business and the classroom as a style […]
Creativity and Time, Part I
I was listening to cartoonist Lynda Barry talk about a class she teaches at the University of Wisconsin. She described a creativity exercise she learned from Ivan Brunetti’s book Cartoon Philosophy and Practice. Brunetti (and now Barry) has students draw a car for three minutes, then they draw another car for two minutes, then one minute, […]