[Music]
[Applause]
educators are the servants of the
humanities it is our job to transfer the
accumulated values lesson skills and
knowledge of our ancestors to the next
generation but more importantly we’re
also the servants of humanity and in
many cases were the last line of defense
for some of humanity’s most valuable
natural resources play imagination
creativity hope so today I want to
challenge all of you but especially the
educators among us to be a protector of
those natural resources of humanity be a
protector of the dreamer but what is the
dreamer well I started thinking about
the concept of the dreamer a few years
ago when I was asked to talk about
creativity and explain what is
creativity and I got into a whole line
of thinking about the right side of the
brain and a lot of different aspects of
our intelligence that exists in a
different realm than our thinking mind I
found that one of the most helpful ways
for me and for others to engage with
this topic was by looking at a list of
contrasts a lists of opposites
I developed names for these AI
identities the thinker kind of the left
side logical side and the dreamer so now
to introduce the dreamer we’re going to
look at some opposites of the thinker
and the dreamer if the thinker were
reason the dreamer would be creativity
if the thinker were conscious the
dreamer exists in the unconscious state
the thinker is the
the dreamer is the body the thinker is
the head the dreamer the heart the
thinker is synthetic it’s made by man
it’s created by us whereas the dreamer
is organic it exists naturally outside
of us and not something that we can even
have an impact on the thinker is
efficient the dreamer by definition is
inefficient the thinker is predictable
follows his schedule understands time
whereas the dreamer is chaotic the
thinker is planned the dreamer is
spontaneous the thinker is work and the
dreamer is play there are a few others
the thinker
likes to research and seek the idea
whereas for the dreamer it’s all about
intuition and the idea just comes to you
the thinker will revise a concept the
dreamer will invent a new one the
thinker will memorize the dreamer will
inquire the thinker is controlled the
dreamer is free the thinker will decide
the dreamer will explore the thinker
realizes comes to a realization while
the dreamer imagines the thinker
concentrates while the dreamer daydreams
the realm of the dreamer is like an open
unlimited field a fertile soil where any
idea can grow where there is an
abundance of imagination and creative
energy and all we have to do is tap into
it the thing is the realm of the dreamer
well it is outside of our conscious mind
and it cannot coexist with the thinker
the dreamers rooted in joy and passion
and freedom so what it needs if we use
our analogy of a big feel this good soil
and what is good soil for the dreamer
it’s a safe space it’s
I swear I can be me I can try something
that I don’t know whether it’ll work or
not and I can trust that I’m gonna be
able to do that and be supported as me
the water in this field that nurtures
the plants that’s just acceptance when I
share an idea a thought and expression I
feel like in this space I’m gonna be
accepted and that’s gonna be accepted I
also know I’m gonna receive
encouragement and that’s the sunshine
that makes the plants flourish and
finally the fertilizer on the field
that’s movement and momentum many times
in our creative state we move our body
to get an idea going I love to get my
students out of their mind and into
their body because once we move the
creative ideas really start to flow but
the dreamer is joyous and abundant as it
is in its unconscious world cannot exist
around fear self-consciousness and
negative energy and there are several
things I’m gonna highlight four that are
very common parts of our society and our
educational system that kill the dreamer
that absolutely make it so the dreamer
cannot exist one is hierarchy hierarchy
means the best idea comes from the top
the person at the top has the biggest
degree or is the most qualified for some
reason they’re the ones who ideas matter
and you’re supposed to listen and take
notes creativity doesn’t work that way
the best idea can come from a
two-year-old hierarchy limits the size
of the garden competition and pressure
that’s like drought that’s like taking
the water away from the plant if you
have competition to reach some goal or
pressure to achieve on some test there
is no way that you can feel free to be
creative criticism making fun ridicule
that is like disease to the dreamer
nothing kills the dreamer faster than
being made fun of being ridiculed not
being accepted and finally and this one
took me a while to come to terms with
thinking just the act of thinking
testing may
during examining just those simple
things destroy the dreamer it cannot
coexist with those things it’s like
you’ve taken the plants up from out of
the ground so you can examine the root
structures the plants will die
so the dreamer can’t exist with that and
that is exactly why it needs to be
protected but but what does it mean to
be a protector of the dreamer well I
hope to illustrate this concept through
some experiences I had growing up up to
this point of people who were the
protector of the dreamer for me the
first the protector of play and the
players all the world’s a stage and all
the men and women merely players thus
says William Shakespeare in his play as
you like it and when I was a kid well I
thought that that could have been the
truth you see my mom was a drama teacher
and so as early as I can remember I was
on and around the stage there was always
talk of that latest musical theater
number some new play that’s out on
Broadway or the show that my mom was
working on this is my mom in her office
you can see a lame-ass musical theater
poster behind her and and just on the
other side there you can see a poster
from the variety show she started in our
community back in 1978 a show that she’s
directed on our community ever every
year since up until this past year this
is me as a young guy at the variety show
very much at home with the actors with
the performances playing but also just
getting to know the world of the stage
in the world of drama this is me a few
years later now I was playing a pie
salesman that was selling fake pies and
this policeman kept coming by to check
and I would keep coming through
different times during the show just to
prove that I was selling pies for real
eventually he would chase me off the
stage every time I had the best time of
my life so from a very early age I was
on the stage and I thank my mother for
introducing me my brother and sister and
I to the world of drama the world of the
players but that wasn’t the greatest
gift that she gave us the greatest gift
that she gave us was protecting our play
she gave us
permission and she protected our
schedules I look at some of the young
people out there these days they don’t
have a free minute to themselves it’s as
if their parents believed if they were
given one hour of free time in a week
they would waste that time for sure or
at least not use it in a productive way
and thereby be passed by some other
person competing for that one slot to
the great University or the great job or
whatever the perceived future success is
well my mom didn’t have that kind of
agenda for us
she gave us long unbroken I had no
periods of time where our minds could
wander and we could just enjoy playing
and being kids she didn’t have to teach
us how to imagine or invent or
make-believe that was something that
came as naturally to us as walking and
talking the only thing she had to do was
protect the time and give us permission
we need more protectors of play so I
went off to school and as the dreamer
gets to school they move from this time
of for me this wonderful time of play
into a time where play is not so
accepted and if you think about it if we
look at some of the traits of the
dreamer we can think about how these
traits don’t always exactly fit in a
school setting traits like being
inefficient or spontaneous free and
chaotic play even is relegated to recess
and then cut out of the curriculum
completely by the time you get to middle
school exploring wandering daydreaming
these were certainly not the kinds of
students that made my classroom easy the
dreamer has a tough time at school which
is why the dreamer needs to be protected
at school or else you get doodles like
this you know doodles are just the
daegeum are crying out for help that’s
what a doodle is for those of you who
aren’t aware I was lucky enough
throughout my schooling to have several
protectors of creativity
who gave us a choice and a chance to be
creative at key times and that gave me a
lifeline to my imagination
throughout the schooling process one of
those was my second grade teacher miss
Whittaker we ran into miss Whittaker
about a year ago
at a summer barbecue she was 82 years
old but the look on her face the smile
her laugh the gentle gaze in her eyes
none of that had changed time had
affected her of course but it felt like
it had been very gentle with her and it
reminded me of how she was in our class
I used to love her book reports does
anybody remember book reports a book
reports where you you read a book then
you memorize the key parts the author
the plot you know the setting and then
you stand in front you recite that in
front of the class well miss Whittaker
encouraged me to do creative book
reports oh I would memorize my entire
book report I would get some props from
my mom’s prop closet and I would dress
up like a character from the book and
deliver the book report in character as
a character from the story that’s me
right there wearing the the homemade wig
and the funny-looking little white shirt
lifeline to my creativity a little bit
later 11th grade history teacher mr.
Boyle
he was the most demanding teacher in the
school he was a very very rigorous
grader and he expected a lot of his
students but he also gave us a creative
option and so for our study of the 1960s
decade in America he let us do a
creative presentation as our final
professor final for our final grade and
for me ah what a wonder we did a
20-minute multimedia staged performance
that included hippy anti-war rallies the
Martin Luther King I have a dream speech
and the assassinations of Robert and
John Kennedy I mean I can remember that
from so many years ago I remember that
like it was last week I remember it
because it mattered to me because I
could do it my way because it does
matter it does matter to give kids a
chance and a choice to be creative we
need protectors of creativity bit off to
college and I have to say my college
years were some of the most fruitful for
my dreamer short hours of class long
hours of time to explore I was involved
in every after-school Club you could
imagine but by the
of my fourth year when graduation was
right around the corner I kept hearing
about the real world it’s time to
realize come to the realization that
you’re gonna be out in the hard cold
world and you’re gonna have to figure
out what to do and I was scared
according to Gallup research the most
important thing that is the biggest
impact on the future success and
happiness of a student is a professor
who cares about them as a person gets
them excited about learning and
encourages them to pursue their dreams
for me this was a protector of
imagination who I met in college
mr. Mead Ernest Mead affectionately
known as boots I met him just a few days
before the start of this very stressful
fourth year and I can still remember
talking to him the way he would listen
the way he was genuinely interested in
what I had to say my interest in my
pursuits I was fortunate enough to be
part of a small group that got to join
the mr. Meade’s seminar mr. Mead had
retired many years earlier and yet he
still came back to teach one class every
year it was just called the music
seminar but what it really was was an
opportunity for a small group of
students to get together with mr. meat
as a facilitator with no quizzes no
tests no set curriculum in fact all of
the content was generated by the
students ourselves we were encouraged to
explore any of those concepts ideas or
subjects that we hadn’t had a chance to
study in the normal curriculum but even
more than that mr. Mead encouraged us to
imagine know what lights you up you used
to say if you know what lights you up
that’s what you need to do that’s what
you need to focus on in that time of
pressure when everybody was scrambling
to find a safe job to find somewhere
safe to land after graduation mr. Mead
encouraged us to imagine imagine the
kind of future you want not the kind
that’s the realistic one that you think
you can get imagine the kind of future
that you think you can bring into this
world here we are with my small study
group and that’s me sitting with mr.
Meade so when I was presented at the end
of my of my college time with two very
different opportunities of what to do
next when when I was getting ready to
graduate
the first consulting job Washington DC
stable salary my parents would have been
thrilled I would have been an hour away
from home or travel halfway across the
world to Warsaw Poland to work at
something called an international school
teaching drama after working with mr.
Meade the decision for me was easy and
it wasn’t that hard for me to convince
my parents either because I knew that
even though the first path was
definitely the ones to a stable career a
stable income a stable life the second
path lit up my imagination and so that’s
what I did I went to the international
school the American School of Warsaw
Poland to be exact and I started my
journey in international education and
what I found there ah it was school as
school was meant to be it was a place
where teachers were artists musicians
adventurers poets scholars trusted and
respected professionals who were given
the space the freedom and the
opportunity to create and to do their
jobs and to play I had two amazing
mentors there miss McGinnis and miss
Murphy the first an actress and a leader
with the international schools theatre
Association the second an artist and a
philosopher they showed me that a
classroom could be a haven it could be a
place where students and teachers could
have real raw earnest discussions about
life and things that mattered where
people could connect on important and
personal levels where life could be
explored and discussed I was exposed at
that time as well to the international
schools theatre Association and I could
do a whole talk just on them because I
feel like the international schools
theatre Association ensemble method of
draw
could be a textbook way of transforming
any space any classroom into a haven for
the dreamer a way to protect the dreamer
you get smiles like this in spaces like
that I’m not going to talk more about
the international schools theater
Association but I will end today with a
story from that organization I was able
to go on an international school theatre
Association festival to Terezin in the
Czech Republic Terezin is a beautiful
town located about 60 miles outside of
Prague and the Czech Republic but it has
a very challenging history back in 1942
Terezin was used as a concentration camp
for the Nazis and thousands of Jewish
people were sent there never to return
again now the different thing about
Terezin is that it was meant to be a
sample camp a place where the Nazis
could show the outside world that these
camps weren’t so bad they were meant to
protect the Jewish people not to cause
them any harm it was the place where
many of the first Jewish people were
relocated many of the prestigious
intellectuals artists musicians and
children around 15,000 children to be
exact in her terror scene we started
just by exploring trying to come to
terms with what had happened in this
place such a beautiful place but with
such a dark history we toured the
grounds where the concentration camp
victims had lived where they had worked
and played dark corridors and then we
thought about their lives we thought
about who they had been before
and the things that they left behind and
we started to integrate this in the way
that it stood eyes we started to make it
real and make it human and give voice to
what had happened and hear the stories
of those people and take some of that
pain into our own hearts and process it
through drama into something that had
its own expression something that was at
once incredibly sad and incredibly
beautiful
and by doing so helped to integrate that
experience for all of us for me it was
the children so many children and the
adults that risked so much to look after
them I was told we were told that the
children wanted to draw to paint and to
create and the adults would risk their
lives to steal small scraps of paper art
supplies so that the children could have
a chance to create and many of these
drawings survived buried under the
ground crammed into some of the places
some some of behind the bunks in some of
the the housing areas and these show
that from the child’s perspective hope
had never left they could still see the
green grass they could still see the
butterflies even in the darkest of times
they could still feel hope they had
protectors but they could still feel
hope so I was moved I mean we were all
moved by this experience and by the end
of the day a song had come to me the
words the melody all just into my mind
and as the ista people are so gracious
and open and spontaneous to anything any
suggestion I asked if I could share the
song with the group at that last session
they said of course and so I started
singing the song and then another voice
joined and another and by the end all of
the people there we were all singing
this song this song that had somehow
been inspired by the work of these
children from so long ago not too much
longer I’m back in Warsaw Poland and
another college classmate had come
through town though she was bringing a
group of Jewish students through Europe
to tour concentration camps and asked if
I would speak to them about Terezin and
my experiences there and I did and I
told them about the horror but also
about the healing that had been
experienced that I had experienced
through art and I shared with him this
song in just a couple weeks after that I
got an email from her that said on one
of the last nights of their tour after
they had also experienced the horror and
experienced some healing they sang this
song this song that was inspired by
those children that was inspired by
those adults that predict
protected them that was inspired by
those teachers that brought the students
there for that festival they sang it has
the Jewish people that were meant to be
exterminated but that were not on the
banks alongside Jerusalem they sang the
song and I’ll sing it for you now very
simple melody I’m around you any time
that you need me oh you have to do is
think of me and I’m around you anytime
that you need me all you have to do is
think of me of me and thank you at the
beginning of this talk I encouraged all
of us to be protectors but here’s the
secret before you can protect any young
person like my protectors protected me
the first person you have to protect is
yourself your inner child is just
waiting to have permission to play your
inner artist once a choice and a chance
to be creative again your inner
adventurer is waiting for its
imagination to be ignited and all it
takes is a few scraps of paper for your
inner child to see with hopeful eyes the
beauty that exists even in the darkest
times of our world educators are
servants of the humanities it is our
duty to transfer the accumulated
knowledge skills lessons all that was
learned from her from our ancestors to
the next generation but we are also the
servants of humanity and sometimes we
are the last line of defense against
some of humanity’s greatest natural
resources things like play creativity
imagination and hope today I encourage
all of us but especially the educators
among us to protect these natural
resources of humanity to be protectors
of the dreamer
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
educators are the servants of the
humanities it is our job to transfer the
accumulated values lesson skills and
knowledge of our ancestors to the next
generation but more importantly we’re
also the servants of humanity and in
many cases were the last line of defense
for some of humanity’s most valuable
natural resources play imagination
creativity hope so today I want to
challenge all of you but especially the
educators among us to be a protector of
those natural resources of humanity be a
protector of the dreamer but what is the
dreamer well I started thinking about
the concept of the dreamer a few years
ago when I was asked to talk about
creativity and explain what is
creativity and I got into a whole line
of thinking about the right side of the
brain and a lot of different aspects of
our intelligence that exists in a
different realm than our thinking mind I
found that one of the most helpful ways
for me and for others to engage with
this topic was by looking at a list of
contrasts a lists of opposites
I developed names for these AI
identities the thinker kind of the left
side logical side and the dreamer so now
to introduce the dreamer we’re going to
look at some opposites of the thinker
and the dreamer if the thinker were
reason the dreamer would be creativity
if the thinker were conscious the
dreamer exists in the unconscious state
the thinker is the
the dreamer is the body the thinker is
the head the dreamer the heart the
thinker is synthetic it’s made by man
it’s created by us whereas the dreamer
is organic it exists naturally outside
of us and not something that we can even
have an impact on the thinker is
efficient the dreamer by definition is
inefficient the thinker is predictable
follows his schedule understands time
whereas the dreamer is chaotic the
thinker is planned the dreamer is
spontaneous the thinker is work and the
dreamer is play there are a few others
the thinker
likes to research and seek the idea
whereas for the dreamer it’s all about
intuition and the idea just comes to you
the thinker will revise a concept the
dreamer will invent a new one the
thinker will memorize the dreamer will
inquire the thinker is controlled the
dreamer is free the thinker will decide
the dreamer will explore the thinker
realizes comes to a realization while
the dreamer imagines the thinker
concentrates while the dreamer daydreams
the realm of the dreamer is like an open
unlimited field a fertile soil where any
idea can grow where there is an
abundance of imagination and creative
energy and all we have to do is tap into
it the thing is the realm of the dreamer
well it is outside of our conscious mind
and it cannot coexist with the thinker
the dreamers rooted in joy and passion
and freedom so what it needs if we use
our analogy of a big feel this good soil
and what is good soil for the dreamer
it’s a safe space it’s
I swear I can be me I can try something
that I don’t know whether it’ll work or
not and I can trust that I’m gonna be
able to do that and be supported as me
the water in this field that nurtures
the plants that’s just acceptance when I
share an idea a thought and expression I
feel like in this space I’m gonna be
accepted and that’s gonna be accepted I
also know I’m gonna receive
encouragement and that’s the sunshine
that makes the plants flourish and
finally the fertilizer on the field
that’s movement and momentum many times
in our creative state we move our body
to get an idea going I love to get my
students out of their mind and into
their body because once we move the
creative ideas really start to flow but
the dreamer is joyous and abundant as it
is in its unconscious world cannot exist
around fear self-consciousness and
negative energy and there are several
things I’m gonna highlight four that are
very common parts of our society and our
educational system that kill the dreamer
that absolutely make it so the dreamer
cannot exist one is hierarchy hierarchy
means the best idea comes from the top
the person at the top has the biggest
degree or is the most qualified for some
reason they’re the ones who ideas matter
and you’re supposed to listen and take
notes creativity doesn’t work that way
the best idea can come from a
two-year-old hierarchy limits the size
of the garden competition and pressure
that’s like drought that’s like taking
the water away from the plant if you
have competition to reach some goal or
pressure to achieve on some test there
is no way that you can feel free to be
creative criticism making fun ridicule
that is like disease to the dreamer
nothing kills the dreamer faster than
being made fun of being ridiculed not
being accepted and finally and this one
took me a while to come to terms with
thinking just the act of thinking
testing may
during examining just those simple
things destroy the dreamer it cannot
coexist with those things it’s like
you’ve taken the plants up from out of
the ground so you can examine the root
structures the plants will die
so the dreamer can’t exist with that and
that is exactly why it needs to be
protected but but what does it mean to
be a protector of the dreamer well I
hope to illustrate this concept through
some experiences I had growing up up to
this point of people who were the
protector of the dreamer for me the
first the protector of play and the
players all the world’s a stage and all
the men and women merely players thus
says William Shakespeare in his play as
you like it and when I was a kid well I
thought that that could have been the
truth you see my mom was a drama teacher
and so as early as I can remember I was
on and around the stage there was always
talk of that latest musical theater
number some new play that’s out on
Broadway or the show that my mom was
working on this is my mom in her office
you can see a lame-ass musical theater
poster behind her and and just on the
other side there you can see a poster
from the variety show she started in our
community back in 1978 a show that she’s
directed on our community ever every
year since up until this past year this
is me as a young guy at the variety show
very much at home with the actors with
the performances playing but also just
getting to know the world of the stage
in the world of drama this is me a few
years later now I was playing a pie
salesman that was selling fake pies and
this policeman kept coming by to check
and I would keep coming through
different times during the show just to
prove that I was selling pies for real
eventually he would chase me off the
stage every time I had the best time of
my life so from a very early age I was
on the stage and I thank my mother for
introducing me my brother and sister and
I to the world of drama the world of the
players but that wasn’t the greatest
gift that she gave us the greatest gift
that she gave us was protecting our play
she gave us
permission and she protected our
schedules I look at some of the young
people out there these days they don’t
have a free minute to themselves it’s as
if their parents believed if they were
given one hour of free time in a week
they would waste that time for sure or
at least not use it in a productive way
and thereby be passed by some other
person competing for that one slot to
the great University or the great job or
whatever the perceived future success is
well my mom didn’t have that kind of
agenda for us
she gave us long unbroken I had no
periods of time where our minds could
wander and we could just enjoy playing
and being kids she didn’t have to teach
us how to imagine or invent or
make-believe that was something that
came as naturally to us as walking and
talking the only thing she had to do was
protect the time and give us permission
we need more protectors of play so I
went off to school and as the dreamer
gets to school they move from this time
of for me this wonderful time of play
into a time where play is not so
accepted and if you think about it if we
look at some of the traits of the
dreamer we can think about how these
traits don’t always exactly fit in a
school setting traits like being
inefficient or spontaneous free and
chaotic play even is relegated to recess
and then cut out of the curriculum
completely by the time you get to middle
school exploring wandering daydreaming
these were certainly not the kinds of
students that made my classroom easy the
dreamer has a tough time at school which
is why the dreamer needs to be protected
at school or else you get doodles like
this you know doodles are just the
daegeum are crying out for help that’s
what a doodle is for those of you who
aren’t aware I was lucky enough
throughout my schooling to have several
protectors of creativity
who gave us a choice and a chance to be
creative at key times and that gave me a
lifeline to my imagination
throughout the schooling process one of
those was my second grade teacher miss
Whittaker we ran into miss Whittaker
about a year ago
at a summer barbecue she was 82 years
old but the look on her face the smile
her laugh the gentle gaze in her eyes
none of that had changed time had
affected her of course but it felt like
it had been very gentle with her and it
reminded me of how she was in our class
I used to love her book reports does
anybody remember book reports a book
reports where you you read a book then
you memorize the key parts the author
the plot you know the setting and then
you stand in front you recite that in
front of the class well miss Whittaker
encouraged me to do creative book
reports oh I would memorize my entire
book report I would get some props from
my mom’s prop closet and I would dress
up like a character from the book and
deliver the book report in character as
a character from the story that’s me
right there wearing the the homemade wig
and the funny-looking little white shirt
lifeline to my creativity a little bit
later 11th grade history teacher mr.
Boyle
he was the most demanding teacher in the
school he was a very very rigorous
grader and he expected a lot of his
students but he also gave us a creative
option and so for our study of the 1960s
decade in America he let us do a
creative presentation as our final
professor final for our final grade and
for me ah what a wonder we did a
20-minute multimedia staged performance
that included hippy anti-war rallies the
Martin Luther King I have a dream speech
and the assassinations of Robert and
John Kennedy I mean I can remember that
from so many years ago I remember that
like it was last week I remember it
because it mattered to me because I
could do it my way because it does
matter it does matter to give kids a
chance and a choice to be creative we
need protectors of creativity bit off to
college and I have to say my college
years were some of the most fruitful for
my dreamer short hours of class long
hours of time to explore I was involved
in every after-school Club you could
imagine but by the
of my fourth year when graduation was
right around the corner I kept hearing
about the real world it’s time to
realize come to the realization that
you’re gonna be out in the hard cold
world and you’re gonna have to figure
out what to do and I was scared
according to Gallup research the most
important thing that is the biggest
impact on the future success and
happiness of a student is a professor
who cares about them as a person gets
them excited about learning and
encourages them to pursue their dreams
for me this was a protector of
imagination who I met in college
mr. Mead Ernest Mead affectionately
known as boots I met him just a few days
before the start of this very stressful
fourth year and I can still remember
talking to him the way he would listen
the way he was genuinely interested in
what I had to say my interest in my
pursuits I was fortunate enough to be
part of a small group that got to join
the mr. Meade’s seminar mr. Mead had
retired many years earlier and yet he
still came back to teach one class every
year it was just called the music
seminar but what it really was was an
opportunity for a small group of
students to get together with mr. meat
as a facilitator with no quizzes no
tests no set curriculum in fact all of
the content was generated by the
students ourselves we were encouraged to
explore any of those concepts ideas or
subjects that we hadn’t had a chance to
study in the normal curriculum but even
more than that mr. Mead encouraged us to
imagine know what lights you up you used
to say if you know what lights you up
that’s what you need to do that’s what
you need to focus on in that time of
pressure when everybody was scrambling
to find a safe job to find somewhere
safe to land after graduation mr. Mead
encouraged us to imagine imagine the
kind of future you want not the kind
that’s the realistic one that you think
you can get imagine the kind of future
that you think you can bring into this
world here we are with my small study
group and that’s me sitting with mr.
Meade so when I was presented at the end
of my of my college time with two very
different opportunities of what to do
next when when I was getting ready to
graduate
the first consulting job Washington DC
stable salary my parents would have been
thrilled I would have been an hour away
from home or travel halfway across the
world to Warsaw Poland to work at
something called an international school
teaching drama after working with mr.
Meade the decision for me was easy and
it wasn’t that hard for me to convince
my parents either because I knew that
even though the first path was
definitely the ones to a stable career a
stable income a stable life the second
path lit up my imagination and so that’s
what I did I went to the international
school the American School of Warsaw
Poland to be exact and I started my
journey in international education and
what I found there ah it was school as
school was meant to be it was a place
where teachers were artists musicians
adventurers poets scholars trusted and
respected professionals who were given
the space the freedom and the
opportunity to create and to do their
jobs and to play I had two amazing
mentors there miss McGinnis and miss
Murphy the first an actress and a leader
with the international schools theatre
Association the second an artist and a
philosopher they showed me that a
classroom could be a haven it could be a
place where students and teachers could
have real raw earnest discussions about
life and things that mattered where
people could connect on important and
personal levels where life could be
explored and discussed I was exposed at
that time as well to the international
schools theatre Association and I could
do a whole talk just on them because I
feel like the international schools
theatre Association ensemble method of
draw
could be a textbook way of transforming
any space any classroom into a haven for
the dreamer a way to protect the dreamer
you get smiles like this in spaces like
that I’m not going to talk more about
the international schools theater
Association but I will end today with a
story from that organization I was able
to go on an international school theatre
Association festival to Terezin in the
Czech Republic Terezin is a beautiful
town located about 60 miles outside of
Prague and the Czech Republic but it has
a very challenging history back in 1942
Terezin was used as a concentration camp
for the Nazis and thousands of Jewish
people were sent there never to return
again now the different thing about
Terezin is that it was meant to be a
sample camp a place where the Nazis
could show the outside world that these
camps weren’t so bad they were meant to
protect the Jewish people not to cause
them any harm it was the place where
many of the first Jewish people were
relocated many of the prestigious
intellectuals artists musicians and
children around 15,000 children to be
exact in her terror scene we started
just by exploring trying to come to
terms with what had happened in this
place such a beautiful place but with
such a dark history we toured the
grounds where the concentration camp
victims had lived where they had worked
and played dark corridors and then we
thought about their lives we thought
about who they had been before
and the things that they left behind and
we started to integrate this in the way
that it stood eyes we started to make it
real and make it human and give voice to
what had happened and hear the stories
of those people and take some of that
pain into our own hearts and process it
through drama into something that had
its own expression something that was at
once incredibly sad and incredibly
beautiful
and by doing so helped to integrate that
experience for all of us for me it was
the children so many children and the
adults that risked so much to look after
them I was told we were told that the
children wanted to draw to paint and to
create and the adults would risk their
lives to steal small scraps of paper art
supplies so that the children could have
a chance to create and many of these
drawings survived buried under the
ground crammed into some of the places
some some of behind the bunks in some of
the the housing areas and these show
that from the child’s perspective hope
had never left they could still see the
green grass they could still see the
butterflies even in the darkest of times
they could still feel hope they had
protectors but they could still feel
hope so I was moved I mean we were all
moved by this experience and by the end
of the day a song had come to me the
words the melody all just into my mind
and as the ista people are so gracious
and open and spontaneous to anything any
suggestion I asked if I could share the
song with the group at that last session
they said of course and so I started
singing the song and then another voice
joined and another and by the end all of
the people there we were all singing
this song this song that had somehow
been inspired by the work of these
children from so long ago not too much
longer I’m back in Warsaw Poland and
another college classmate had come
through town though she was bringing a
group of Jewish students through Europe
to tour concentration camps and asked if
I would speak to them about Terezin and
my experiences there and I did and I
told them about the horror but also
about the healing that had been
experienced that I had experienced
through art and I shared with him this
song in just a couple weeks after that I
got an email from her that said on one
of the last nights of their tour after
they had also experienced the horror and
experienced some healing they sang this
song this song that was inspired by
those children that was inspired by
those adults that predict
protected them that was inspired by
those teachers that brought the students
there for that festival they sang it has
the Jewish people that were meant to be
exterminated but that were not on the
banks alongside Jerusalem they sang the
song and I’ll sing it for you now very
simple melody I’m around you any time
that you need me oh you have to do is
think of me and I’m around you anytime
that you need me all you have to do is
think of me of me and thank you at the
beginning of this talk I encouraged all
of us to be protectors but here’s the
secret before you can protect any young
person like my protectors protected me
the first person you have to protect is
yourself your inner child is just
waiting to have permission to play your
inner artist once a choice and a chance
to be creative again your inner
adventurer is waiting for its
imagination to be ignited and all it
takes is a few scraps of paper for your
inner child to see with hopeful eyes the
beauty that exists even in the darkest
times of our world educators are
servants of the humanities it is our
duty to transfer the accumulated
knowledge skills lessons all that was
learned from her from our ancestors to
the next generation but we are also the
servants of humanity and sometimes we
are the last line of defense against
some of humanity’s greatest natural
resources things like play creativity
imagination and hope today I encourage
all of us but especially the educators
among us to protect these natural
resources of humanity to be protectors
of the dreamer
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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