Feel that for moment. Sit with it.

Insert annoying elevator music here please and read the fine print.

Now, take a little detour with me if you will.

Hold that thought.

Someone once said to me, “Annie, you’re their ‘jack o all trades’ and you’re gonna have to decide if you’re gonna keep taking all they decide to toss at you”. Interesting phrasing. I hadn’t considered things in that light before. I genuinely like doing new things. I am curious by nature and passionate about exploring, learning and play. Whether dogsledding, composing, catering or comedic routines, I’m always looking for new things to learn, like coding and welding.

I’m blessed to wear a lot of hats.

I’m a mom (of two legged and four legged fascinating beings).

I’m an artist, an explorer of colour and movement. I squish paint.

I’m a maker and a creator.

I’m an educator and advocate. I teach stuff. Sometimes. Other times, I’m an explorer in a new world, a co-conspirator on an adventure and I learn as much as my students. More often than not, they will teach this dinosaur new tricks. And it’s magical.

There has been a lot of talk in edu-world, about competencies, mindsets, outcomes, how we get there, and what we should be “producing”. So many laudable minds with amazing ideas about facilitating engaged learners who approach challenges fearlessly, who think creatively and with dogged determination problem solve, fail, reevaluate, reattempt until success is found such that they are set up for success in the ever changing global market. Innovators with more STEAM than the little engine who could!

Hold that thought.

Flow. I’ll let you do your own digging into the research behind it all, both the psychology and its applications to education, but for now, consider flow to be that state of mind where your mind is so engaged that it’s almost not engaged, because you can lose track of time and one thing moves on to the next thing and there is just…this..flow. I’ve called it “the zone” when painting, or “stream of consciousness” or “intuitive” painting, because you’re not necessarily thinking, you are just doing. And I mean that in an actively engaged sense, not as a passive automaton.

Flow. The zone. It’s a pretty amazing space. Sometimes, it’s this synergy of ideas where you can build from one to the next, leap frog dancing, ever expanding, creating and innovating and…

Hold that thought.

Seriously? But I just want to try…

Hold that thought.

But what if we…

Hold

I could do this if I…

That

Can we just go and see if they have…

Thought

Feel that? The energy, the confidence, the drive, the joy, the pride, the curiosity…wind from the sails, momentum is gone, and it grinds down, dust and ashes, leaden, suffocating the essence of creativity, innovation, dreams.

Why? Because our systems are not designed for flow. In short bursts, micro tasks, I will concede. But for those magical, gravity defying leaps of imagination and courage? Where learning is a cross curricular fluid meld and colleagues collaborate such that my student’s journey becomes your student’s journey because you can facilitate this where I can facilitate that? Where my skills support this piece and your knowledge provides the key to the next lock, and a student can go from lock to lock and work the tumblers until the whole puzzle is solved and the adventure complete because we never had to tell them…

Hold that thought…

We say we want kids who take risks, who are resilient, Innovators and Makers and Creative Collaborators. But we are inherently supporting the very systems that take that natural curiosity and creativity and squeeze it out of them, breaking it down bit by bit with every pedantic worksheet, every standardized test, every time they’re given the message when the “right” answer is rewarded. Colour within the lines. There is only one way. That’s not my department. I have curriculum to teach. We don’t have time.

Creativity, mindful inquiry, project based learning and problem solving is “messy”. It is non-linear, takes time and isn’t quantifiably measured within the confines of the ministry dictated outcomes, the perfect assessment rubric you’ve been slaving over for hours that tick off those perfectly precise little boxes of creative confinement. When the system is constructed such that the expectation for educators is to teach the same materials, with the same assessments, and in some cases, at the exact same time, day by day marching in step to the beat of the drum that plays only for the convenience of covering curriculum, so that “standards” are the same, which by no means means equitable, there is no room in that perfect race of pedantic pedagogy for ” I don’t know. Let’s find out”.

I sometimes discuss things that have come up in Edu-Twitter, to get some insights, see what rings true. On creativity, one of my students said, “Miss, they crush the creativity out of us, then turn around and expect us to be creative”. And how, pray tell do you respond to that when you know, in your heart of hearts, that there is truth resonating like an alarm, a call to action? I thought of when my youngest came home from school one day with a piece of artwork he had created. It was awesome, and no, not a “mom”moment”. I was fascinated when he explained each little detail, because it was well thought out, this little magical universe. On the back? The rubric with its precise, crisp checks letting him know it was valued at a 3 (B for my southern colleagues). Why? Because the sky was purple. Because he had coloured outside his own lines. Now some will say that we have to assess things, and fair enough. However, our assessments denote value and construct systems and imbue meaning. No one asked to find out that the sky was purple at twilight with fireflies dancing over a grassy hill. Lesson learned? How confident would you have to be to risk thinking creatively the next time?

We need to start dialogues.

We need to stop asking “Why?”and start saying “Why not?”

Hold that thought.

Simplistic? Perhaps. How many boxes does it take before we stop asking, stop daring, play it safe?

Creative spark. Flow. Fluidity.

Take an idea, a jump off point and run with it.

Flow.

In the Zone.

If I do this and move that, and how about I attach this…”TICK”…but no that doesn’t works so maybe that, but…” TICK”… Got it!!!! Now, just to take it there and …”TOCK”…why can’t we go to the shop? …why…

Because when we don’t have the answers and we learn together, the adventures begin. and when I don’t have the answers but I know someone who does, then why can’t we refer to the masters of that key?

Ah, yes…silos. Or boxes. Or walls. We may have lowered them to the state of a lovely partitioned office space with neatly defined cubicles, but sunshine, a wall…is a wall…is a wall. We peek covertly over the tops, checking out what our colleagues are up to, but we work in independently isolate vacuums of protectionist profundity and guard our spaces from inconvenient, inquisitive interlopers because there is no time, priorities by assessments to scale, curriculum to deliver and a myriad of other rationales to keep our corners sharp, our test scores high, lines clean.

Hold that thought.

Two days. That was how long took them to fix my brand new cable winch which they had over cranked and jammed. I could have easily taken it back to the store. Student choice. Student voice. Success. Which builds confidence for bigger leaps. And that leads to…

Hold that thought.

Waterfalls hanging two stories high, with specifications and materials and costs…a student who was pulling 50s last year…his “flow”, his initiative. Now, he wants to build a prototype, custom make the anchors, which means welding, which means…

Hold that thought.

And that’s the message we’re giving our kids. We blast it on our announcements, create catchy mottos and slogans, and write pedagogical articles and wax poetic on podcasts. Heck, I’ll even design the t-shirts. Be INNOVATIVE. Be CREATIVE. Be daring. Grit! Don’t Quit!

But…hold that thought… We talk a phenomenal talk, but we need to get real about catch phrases and buzzwords like “Creativity” and “Innovative”, because given the assessment models and system parameters we’ve designed and are now stuck working within, given the implicit value messaging students are receiving on a daily basis, what we really mean is “creativity” and “innovative”. Little “c” creative lends itself to our system of walls with its constraints on time and the priority of curriculum download and test scores. Creative process, at the highest level, which we purport to want, takes time, is not neat linear little boxes, so the system cannot truly support it. Innovation and problem solving, true “I” Innovation while highly desired and much appreciated, often leads a student out of your course’s boundaries, to needing to be able to access the guidance and expertise of a different department, but our systems of cubicles and silos aren’t wired to facilitate that. We keep conveniently forgetting to put in the qualifier clause in fine print, “Be innovative. Be creative. BUT please keep it tidy; clean up is 10 minutes before the end of class. Keep your skies blue. Colour within the lines. Innovation stops at the end of period3. Yes, I know you want to, but hold that thought.

And it’s time to be clear and transparent about that, or change the system. Period. Paradigm switch. Put your money where your mouth is. Walk your talk. Or else, stop edu-speaking about goals we have no intention of truly supporting. Once again, we’re holding up the bright shiny object and simultaneously shackling them, boxing them in but asking them to think inside and outside the box. How about, as the adults in the room, the system generators, paradigm constructors, we get rid of the damned box?

I teach art.

I am going to build that damn waterfall. Because for a student to show that level of initiative, to dare, to risk, to be vulnerable, to dream…that student deserves to have a teacher who supports them, believes in them, who walks the talk and will make it happen. I asked them to Innovate and Create. Sky’s the limit. Show me what you got. Bring it. Now the onus is on me to be creative and innovative, to risk and think outside the box, to lean on the relationships I’ve built with colleagues to support me and help facilitate.

And while I figure out this one amazing project which brought to the forefront all the limitations and impediments to Creativity and Innovation, I’ll be looking at ways to advocate for fluidity, to allow for flow, and free range learning as opposed to the coops.

I urge you, take a closer look at the systems you’re working within. Can you truly say C and I, or is it truly c and i? Be honest. Be clear. Let’s find a way to nullify the need for that boring “hold please” music…Put your money where your mouth is. Walk your talk #PebbleRippleOcean.