This is creativity. And this is just a trip to the coffee shop. Imagine the creativity that you will encounter in every other part of your day. When you read a new article in your publication of choice, when you take in a commercial on the radio or TV, or even when you go to your local department store.
These are all examples of creativity. Someone had to decide what creativity was going to look like in each of those examples. It's someone's job to invent the coffee flavor, design the advertisements, write the piece that catches your eye, and design the store displays that will make you take notice. And we need to recognize that none of these examples are limited to "the artsy ones," the ones that can draw really well, or maybe are really good at crafts or something like that. They're not Martha Stewart. They're the ones that realize that the next big move or the next thing driving their business is dependent upon being different, innovating, or standing out. Because why else would you spend $4 on coffee?
I'm thinking about Apple's Think Different campaign from back in the late 90's.
How often do we allow ourselves to think different? And are we teaching kids to think different? Or are we still expecting every student to turn out the same product? Being creative is being different. Our world depends on creativity- solving unique problems, challenging "because we've always done it that way." We have to innovate, we have to inspire. We can't be afraid to stand out and be different. Because if we do, all we've done is create an unrealistic world. One without problem solving, one in which we make poor decisions because we have been spoon fed. Our world is anything but monotonous. We have to prepare students for uncertainty, and we have to prepare them to continue innovating.
By the way, this year's seniors were born in 1997, the same year Apple launched the Think Different campaign. Has their education been about thinking different or has it simply been replicating previous decades?
