it was april 1964 a typical Friday
morning in mrs. Wilson’s first-grade
class that day I was sitting in mrs.
Wilson’s bottom desk drawer this is a
place where kids sit when they didn’t
pay attention to the rules and didn’t
follow directions in front of the room
mrs. Wilson heard the intercom ring she
picked it up she was talking to the
principal and she got off and she turned
to me in the back of the room and said
mr. brand go to the principal’s office
right now well I got out of my seat in
her desk I walked out the door and I was
kind of relieved I didn’t like mrs.
Wilson she was mean she wasn’t a good
teacher she wasn’t inspiring and as I
walked down I noticed at the end of the
hallway was the principal and my mom I
thought I’m in big trouble now so when I
got there my mom grabbed my hand and we
walked into the out of the door and into
our car and said to me Steven today we
are going to see the world’s fair we’re
going to see the future
well I knew nothing about the world’s
fair I knew a lot about the future
because every day after school I watched
the Jetsons and I learned a lot so as we
drove 25 minutes to the parking lot of
the World’s Fair we took a long journey
from on the parking lot to where we got
our tickets and as we were standing
there at the front gate we looked in and
we saw the iconic World’s Fair globe it
was awesome there were thousands of
people there were marching bands I could
smell all the aromas from food from
around the world there’s a guy in a
spacesuit using a jet pack flying
overhead there were buildings on the
left all shapes and sizes there were
buildings on the right funny colors and
it was just unbelievable it’s just all
sensory experience we went into the
exhibition on the left and I got to see
cars of the future concept cars cars it
was sleek fast all sorts of interesting
colors to the right we went to an
exhibition we could see gadgets and
devices and homes that we were going to
be living in in the few
we actually got to see and use a
videophone which everybody said will
never ever work being in that experience
in that environment inspired me to say
you know I want to think about the
future always I’m gonna be thinking
about the future how it’s gonna get
there and who’s gonna create it now
decades later I got my dream job I
became the opening president of the
National Inventors Hall of Fame and soon
after I got there I got to meet the most
interesting people I got to meet the
inventor of sonar and MRIs and one of my
favorites the veteran of the electric
guitar Les Paul their conversations were
not like ones I’d ever seen
they were fascinating they talked about
ideas that no one else talked about the
fact that they were from different
fields and their interactions came up
with new ideas that no one has ever
thought about before I asked about their
childhood where they started and that
inspired me that moment sparked my
curiosity that led to hundreds of
interviews with innovators to learn
about their child’s in child childhood
inspirations now most innovation
researchers study how innovators
innovate as adults I wanted to look at
innovators from a wide range of field as
children and come up with ways to
inspire and develop innovators of
tomorrow
based on these inspirations I hope the
following stories can provide insight
for parents grandparents aunts uncles
informal learning professionals and even
teachers now when I ask innovators would
inspire them to be who they are today
school experience just doesn’t come up
but out of school experiences come up
and one of the most common things that
came out in these conversations was that
these innovators were emerged and
immersed in a wide range of experiences
that created strong memories that
continue to shape who they are today now
I got a chance to go to the World’s Fair
and day-day Wilson she went to Paris
when Danny was 5 years old her father
wanted to take it a Paris he loved Paris
and wanted to share with his daughter
everything that Paris represented when
she got there she was surrounded by the
aromas and the taste of exquisite French
cuisine one day
when swimming in a pool and the fire the
the waterfall was cascading over grapes
and she was smelling the grapes in they
really inspired her she became a baker
at a very young age and she baked
throughout her childhood ultimately she
became a professional Baker a food
journalist had her own TV show she’s an
author of many books about food and
today she’s a food entrepreneur then
there was Jake Orville Jake’s father was
a public defender Jake’s father said to
him hey Jake come to work just hang out
all the time just come every day he
every day he went to the court and he
hung out and was surrounded by complex
ideas and trials he learned about you
know the law how people navigated the
law he watched people fail every single
day he watched lawyers get their butts
kicked
he watched their clients navigate
through struggling for their freedom
they were sweating it was just an awful
experience they were negotiating for
everything and those very things that he
learned in this real life education
allowed him to be who he is today and he
uses it every single day in his work as
a biotech entrepreneur forest bird was
another innovator as a young boy his
father taught him how to fly a plane his
father owned an open air biplane and
Forrest would sit in in the his seat
sitting on top of his father’s lap
learning how to fly a plane well he did
it he loved going up and he look going
to the ride and going to the left and
looking there and you know having wind
go over his body and his face was just
loving every minute of it and he went
higher and higher he one day realized
that the higher you went the harder it
was to breathe at some point he realized
I’m going to invent something that makes
this better because I want to keep on
going higher well he eventually invented
the respirator and helped pilots go
higher and higher and then he invented
the ventilator and with the respirator
and the ventilator he saved so many
lives adults and children alike
immersions like these with their
innovators with innovators and their
family mentors by them by their side
uncover worlds of ideas and knowledge
that allows these kids to grab onto what
inspires them they experience things
that no other kid
experience they see things that other
kids just don’t see no immersions that
you can create don’t have to be in a
plane in Paris or even in a courtroom
you could splash around on a stream hike
explore a new city or go to an immersive
environment of Home Depot not the shop
but they go on a hunt for shapes colors
materials tools all sorts of things and
teach them how to score deeply and
thoughtfully look up look down look
right look left hold things in your
hands you can also immerse them in a new
place every single month and if they
like it take them back fuel their
curiosity and let them build their own
vision for the future oh the places
they’ll go now how does this work in the
classroom David Hawkins educational
theorist once said think of curriculum
as a way not to cover the required
subjects but to uncover ways to explore
make connections and create memories of
discovery let’s talk about grades well
as did the inventors Hall of Fame Peter
Schultz one of the inventors in the Hall
of Fame came up to meet with middle
school kids he got up in front of them
and said I nearly failed math in seventh
grade the kids laughed the parents and
the teachers were horrified he said soon
after that he was in his guidance
counselor’s office office well they were
talking about Colin says you know Peter
you’re not college material your grounds
are lousy you should go to trade school
you’d be great at that Peter left that
office and said that’s not gonna happen
to me I’ll have nothing of that
ultimately he graduated with honors he
went to college he went to graduate
school and eventually became the
co-inventor of fiber optics for
communications
then there was topper Carew a filmmaker
architect and innovated throughout his
life one day he was with his grandfather
in a house that was filled with Popular
Mechanics magazines encyclopedia and
tools of all kind and he turns to his
grandfather they said grandpa I want to
buy this boat his grandfather laughed
and said topper in our family we don’t
buy things we make them at that point
they went out they would they bought
metal they bought new tool
they brought all that stuff back and
they made the boat the topper imagine
that he would have you know when he went
to his guidance counselor preparing to
graduate of high school now by the way
you know top was an amazing learner and
he was amazing maker and his grandfather
was a great teacher and a mentor and he
was preparing to get out of high school
and he was with his guidance counselor
at his guidance counselor said hey
topper you’re not college material you
know you didn’t do well in school your
grades were terrible he actually cut out
of school to go to the movies you should
probably go into the Navy and be a sheet
metal worker you’re really good for your
hands and go do that well he wanted none
of that soon after that a new guidance
counselor came into school and he said
said to topper you know top of you are a
lot smarter than your grades suggest I
think you should go to college I’m gonna
help you get there so the two of them
met and he worked very closely with him
and ultimately he went to Howard
University Yale University and today as
a research fellow at MIT and being a
groundbreaking innovator disruptive
innovator is less about mastering
knowledge and much more about mastering
the unknown
let’s thinking about Peter and topper
and I said maybe we should change
examinations into imaginations so think
about this your daughter comes home you
say hey Susie
how’s your imagination today instead of
saying Susie how did you do on that
physics exam now if we asked children
what was and what is we never get the
opportunity for them to imagine what
could be now as I developed dozens of
programs reaching thousands of children
asking them to design products in the
future I asked them to imagine what
could be versus what is and what was now
after this happened over and over again
I learned two things the first thing is
when you ask them what could be what was
and what is always emerges to explain
how they got to what could be and more
importantly we noticed that those kids
who could imagine what could be we’re
not really good students they were
fidgety they were bored they didn’t get
good grades they weren’t in Honor
Society but that experience allowed me
to talk about those kids and experience
understand them that that experience
inspired them and the grades were not
that important
now one more thing that came up for me
was the one piece that really
differentiated them from others is that
they took ownership of their own
learning and the big difference between
taking ownership and becoming an
innovator was not about that but it’s
about what their parents do and the
adults in their life do whose have them
do things and take control to do things
that they don’t want them to do but that
the kid wants to do this movement from
adult centered learning to kid centered
learning which is the key to all of this
and supporting that was that your
response to it and how you respond to
those personal passion and drive in
their own learning
I met Deb mill Schofield that was an
internet innovator from Bell Labs
she lived in a house that was filled
with music and art and science and all
things coming together and they were
lucky they lived near New York and on
Tuesdays it was free museums day in New
York so Deb’s mom would take her out of
school and take her to museums every
week to a different museum her favorite
was the Guggenheim so she would go to
the Guggenheim and instead of looking at
the labels that most people spend more
time than they do in the paintings they
spent times in those paintings her
mother asked her how to ask questions
how to observe differently how to
observe light color perspective and
unique brushstrokes one day after this
happened for a long time her mother
turned to and said hey dad go on your
own you’re smart enough you know how to
explore you know to ask questions take
off from school and go to museums each
week that Deb did that and she loved it
and she thrived but she was a very deep
thinker and after the artwork she went
to philosophy and esoteric French
playwrights today she is at Brown
helping entrepreneurs artists engineers
and everybody across the campus to
figure out ways that they can imagine
the future and make it happen
Dave der Lac who’s an art technologist
and entrepreneur was going to school
that closed unexpectedly his mom instead
of saying we’ll find another school for
you said you know David you’re really
smart you can explore on your own why
don’t you just educate yourself so David
went home and created a laboratory
classroom in his basement and did all
sorts of stuff too
chuckles and put them together and
created all sorts of stuff test the
theories he was doing great and he loved
every minute and when I asked him tell
me about that ownership of the learning
that you took on at that point David
said to me you know Stephen the most
important thing when you want to learn
deeply it takes and imagine an emotional
connection to that learning that he
calls staggering it’s not about the
cognitive and the knowledge it’s about
the emotional connection that he took
that allowed him to really understand
and take that responsibility of learning
on his own and not waiting for someone
to teach him how to do it now when they
begin um I have a bunch of thoughts
about that
they’re taking that ownership and when
they begin to own their own learning be
careful because if you redirect them to
what you think is a better activity to
explore you could lead them to living
your vision and not theirs respect where
their passion takes them and if you shut
them down
you will kill their spirit now taking
ownership unlocks a life of curiosity
making connections that others don’t
make and inspiring them that is embrace
is the responsibility of solving today’s
and tomorrow’s problems an IBM study
when corporate CEOs are asked what they
want from the young employees that they
they have one of the top answers is
around having employees who are curious
and could solve problems something that
seems to be missing from those that they
inherit from today’s schools now as I
went on and asked many more innovators
their stories a lot of common things
that came about these young innovators
thrive solving real-world problems they
surrounded themselves with stuff in
their rooms and in their basements that
fuels their passion and curiosity they
are resilient even when they fail over
and over and over again they were given
real responsibility and we’re trusted
they see things that other kids don’t
see they make connections that other
kids don’t make their grades were not
important to them they just wanted to
learn and explore now many of them were
homeschooled officially or in their
extra time after school for them it’s
about crafting and owning their own
learning experiences these young
innovators find their own mentors in
parents grandparents uncles aunts
friends of the family and even teachers
one that support their differences and
not
to try to coach them into being
something they are just not now what is
a parent and a teacher to do give these
kids a time responsibility and
permission to explore without expected
outcomes trust them to explore even if
you have no idea what they’re talking
about provide unwavering support to
explore on their own terms but give them
the tools to be safe and used values
don’t force them to always clean up
their explorations because you never
know what groundbreaking ideas are in
the works and need more time to
percolate I got four takeaways one
immerse them in places that inspire them
to don’t let grades or other definition
of success define who they are and where
they’re going allow them to take
responsibility for their own learning
and explorations and for most
importantly don’t put them in mrs.
Wilson’s bottom desk drawer because they
didn’t follow directions
that’s the innovators journey thank you
morning in mrs. Wilson’s first-grade
class that day I was sitting in mrs.
Wilson’s bottom desk drawer this is a
place where kids sit when they didn’t
pay attention to the rules and didn’t
follow directions in front of the room
mrs. Wilson heard the intercom ring she
picked it up she was talking to the
principal and she got off and she turned
to me in the back of the room and said
mr. brand go to the principal’s office
right now well I got out of my seat in
her desk I walked out the door and I was
kind of relieved I didn’t like mrs.
Wilson she was mean she wasn’t a good
teacher she wasn’t inspiring and as I
walked down I noticed at the end of the
hallway was the principal and my mom I
thought I’m in big trouble now so when I
got there my mom grabbed my hand and we
walked into the out of the door and into
our car and said to me Steven today we
are going to see the world’s fair we’re
going to see the future
well I knew nothing about the world’s
fair I knew a lot about the future
because every day after school I watched
the Jetsons and I learned a lot so as we
drove 25 minutes to the parking lot of
the World’s Fair we took a long journey
from on the parking lot to where we got
our tickets and as we were standing
there at the front gate we looked in and
we saw the iconic World’s Fair globe it
was awesome there were thousands of
people there were marching bands I could
smell all the aromas from food from
around the world there’s a guy in a
spacesuit using a jet pack flying
overhead there were buildings on the
left all shapes and sizes there were
buildings on the right funny colors and
it was just unbelievable it’s just all
sensory experience we went into the
exhibition on the left and I got to see
cars of the future concept cars cars it
was sleek fast all sorts of interesting
colors to the right we went to an
exhibition we could see gadgets and
devices and homes that we were going to
be living in in the few
we actually got to see and use a
videophone which everybody said will
never ever work being in that experience
in that environment inspired me to say
you know I want to think about the
future always I’m gonna be thinking
about the future how it’s gonna get
there and who’s gonna create it now
decades later I got my dream job I
became the opening president of the
National Inventors Hall of Fame and soon
after I got there I got to meet the most
interesting people I got to meet the
inventor of sonar and MRIs and one of my
favorites the veteran of the electric
guitar Les Paul their conversations were
not like ones I’d ever seen
they were fascinating they talked about
ideas that no one else talked about the
fact that they were from different
fields and their interactions came up
with new ideas that no one has ever
thought about before I asked about their
childhood where they started and that
inspired me that moment sparked my
curiosity that led to hundreds of
interviews with innovators to learn
about their child’s in child childhood
inspirations now most innovation
researchers study how innovators
innovate as adults I wanted to look at
innovators from a wide range of field as
children and come up with ways to
inspire and develop innovators of
tomorrow
based on these inspirations I hope the
following stories can provide insight
for parents grandparents aunts uncles
informal learning professionals and even
teachers now when I ask innovators would
inspire them to be who they are today
school experience just doesn’t come up
but out of school experiences come up
and one of the most common things that
came out in these conversations was that
these innovators were emerged and
immersed in a wide range of experiences
that created strong memories that
continue to shape who they are today now
I got a chance to go to the World’s Fair
and day-day Wilson she went to Paris
when Danny was 5 years old her father
wanted to take it a Paris he loved Paris
and wanted to share with his daughter
everything that Paris represented when
she got there she was surrounded by the
aromas and the taste of exquisite French
cuisine one day
when swimming in a pool and the fire the
the waterfall was cascading over grapes
and she was smelling the grapes in they
really inspired her she became a baker
at a very young age and she baked
throughout her childhood ultimately she
became a professional Baker a food
journalist had her own TV show she’s an
author of many books about food and
today she’s a food entrepreneur then
there was Jake Orville Jake’s father was
a public defender Jake’s father said to
him hey Jake come to work just hang out
all the time just come every day he
every day he went to the court and he
hung out and was surrounded by complex
ideas and trials he learned about you
know the law how people navigated the
law he watched people fail every single
day he watched lawyers get their butts
kicked
he watched their clients navigate
through struggling for their freedom
they were sweating it was just an awful
experience they were negotiating for
everything and those very things that he
learned in this real life education
allowed him to be who he is today and he
uses it every single day in his work as
a biotech entrepreneur forest bird was
another innovator as a young boy his
father taught him how to fly a plane his
father owned an open air biplane and
Forrest would sit in in the his seat
sitting on top of his father’s lap
learning how to fly a plane well he did
it he loved going up and he look going
to the ride and going to the left and
looking there and you know having wind
go over his body and his face was just
loving every minute of it and he went
higher and higher he one day realized
that the higher you went the harder it
was to breathe at some point he realized
I’m going to invent something that makes
this better because I want to keep on
going higher well he eventually invented
the respirator and helped pilots go
higher and higher and then he invented
the ventilator and with the respirator
and the ventilator he saved so many
lives adults and children alike
immersions like these with their
innovators with innovators and their
family mentors by them by their side
uncover worlds of ideas and knowledge
that allows these kids to grab onto what
inspires them they experience things
that no other kid
experience they see things that other
kids just don’t see no immersions that
you can create don’t have to be in a
plane in Paris or even in a courtroom
you could splash around on a stream hike
explore a new city or go to an immersive
environment of Home Depot not the shop
but they go on a hunt for shapes colors
materials tools all sorts of things and
teach them how to score deeply and
thoughtfully look up look down look
right look left hold things in your
hands you can also immerse them in a new
place every single month and if they
like it take them back fuel their
curiosity and let them build their own
vision for the future oh the places
they’ll go now how does this work in the
classroom David Hawkins educational
theorist once said think of curriculum
as a way not to cover the required
subjects but to uncover ways to explore
make connections and create memories of
discovery let’s talk about grades well
as did the inventors Hall of Fame Peter
Schultz one of the inventors in the Hall
of Fame came up to meet with middle
school kids he got up in front of them
and said I nearly failed math in seventh
grade the kids laughed the parents and
the teachers were horrified he said soon
after that he was in his guidance
counselor’s office office well they were
talking about Colin says you know Peter
you’re not college material your grounds
are lousy you should go to trade school
you’d be great at that Peter left that
office and said that’s not gonna happen
to me I’ll have nothing of that
ultimately he graduated with honors he
went to college he went to graduate
school and eventually became the
co-inventor of fiber optics for
communications
then there was topper Carew a filmmaker
architect and innovated throughout his
life one day he was with his grandfather
in a house that was filled with Popular
Mechanics magazines encyclopedia and
tools of all kind and he turns to his
grandfather they said grandpa I want to
buy this boat his grandfather laughed
and said topper in our family we don’t
buy things we make them at that point
they went out they would they bought
metal they bought new tool
they brought all that stuff back and
they made the boat the topper imagine
that he would have you know when he went
to his guidance counselor preparing to
graduate of high school now by the way
you know top was an amazing learner and
he was amazing maker and his grandfather
was a great teacher and a mentor and he
was preparing to get out of high school
and he was with his guidance counselor
at his guidance counselor said hey
topper you’re not college material you
know you didn’t do well in school your
grades were terrible he actually cut out
of school to go to the movies you should
probably go into the Navy and be a sheet
metal worker you’re really good for your
hands and go do that well he wanted none
of that soon after that a new guidance
counselor came into school and he said
said to topper you know top of you are a
lot smarter than your grades suggest I
think you should go to college I’m gonna
help you get there so the two of them
met and he worked very closely with him
and ultimately he went to Howard
University Yale University and today as
a research fellow at MIT and being a
groundbreaking innovator disruptive
innovator is less about mastering
knowledge and much more about mastering
the unknown
let’s thinking about Peter and topper
and I said maybe we should change
examinations into imaginations so think
about this your daughter comes home you
say hey Susie
how’s your imagination today instead of
saying Susie how did you do on that
physics exam now if we asked children
what was and what is we never get the
opportunity for them to imagine what
could be now as I developed dozens of
programs reaching thousands of children
asking them to design products in the
future I asked them to imagine what
could be versus what is and what was now
after this happened over and over again
I learned two things the first thing is
when you ask them what could be what was
and what is always emerges to explain
how they got to what could be and more
importantly we noticed that those kids
who could imagine what could be we’re
not really good students they were
fidgety they were bored they didn’t get
good grades they weren’t in Honor
Society but that experience allowed me
to talk about those kids and experience
understand them that that experience
inspired them and the grades were not
that important
now one more thing that came up for me
was the one piece that really
differentiated them from others is that
they took ownership of their own
learning and the big difference between
taking ownership and becoming an
innovator was not about that but it’s
about what their parents do and the
adults in their life do whose have them
do things and take control to do things
that they don’t want them to do but that
the kid wants to do this movement from
adult centered learning to kid centered
learning which is the key to all of this
and supporting that was that your
response to it and how you respond to
those personal passion and drive in
their own learning
I met Deb mill Schofield that was an
internet innovator from Bell Labs
she lived in a house that was filled
with music and art and science and all
things coming together and they were
lucky they lived near New York and on
Tuesdays it was free museums day in New
York so Deb’s mom would take her out of
school and take her to museums every
week to a different museum her favorite
was the Guggenheim so she would go to
the Guggenheim and instead of looking at
the labels that most people spend more
time than they do in the paintings they
spent times in those paintings her
mother asked her how to ask questions
how to observe differently how to
observe light color perspective and
unique brushstrokes one day after this
happened for a long time her mother
turned to and said hey dad go on your
own you’re smart enough you know how to
explore you know to ask questions take
off from school and go to museums each
week that Deb did that and she loved it
and she thrived but she was a very deep
thinker and after the artwork she went
to philosophy and esoteric French
playwrights today she is at Brown
helping entrepreneurs artists engineers
and everybody across the campus to
figure out ways that they can imagine
the future and make it happen
Dave der Lac who’s an art technologist
and entrepreneur was going to school
that closed unexpectedly his mom instead
of saying we’ll find another school for
you said you know David you’re really
smart you can explore on your own why
don’t you just educate yourself so David
went home and created a laboratory
classroom in his basement and did all
sorts of stuff too
chuckles and put them together and
created all sorts of stuff test the
theories he was doing great and he loved
every minute and when I asked him tell
me about that ownership of the learning
that you took on at that point David
said to me you know Stephen the most
important thing when you want to learn
deeply it takes and imagine an emotional
connection to that learning that he
calls staggering it’s not about the
cognitive and the knowledge it’s about
the emotional connection that he took
that allowed him to really understand
and take that responsibility of learning
on his own and not waiting for someone
to teach him how to do it now when they
begin um I have a bunch of thoughts
about that
they’re taking that ownership and when
they begin to own their own learning be
careful because if you redirect them to
what you think is a better activity to
explore you could lead them to living
your vision and not theirs respect where
their passion takes them and if you shut
them down
you will kill their spirit now taking
ownership unlocks a life of curiosity
making connections that others don’t
make and inspiring them that is embrace
is the responsibility of solving today’s
and tomorrow’s problems an IBM study
when corporate CEOs are asked what they
want from the young employees that they
they have one of the top answers is
around having employees who are curious
and could solve problems something that
seems to be missing from those that they
inherit from today’s schools now as I
went on and asked many more innovators
their stories a lot of common things
that came about these young innovators
thrive solving real-world problems they
surrounded themselves with stuff in
their rooms and in their basements that
fuels their passion and curiosity they
are resilient even when they fail over
and over and over again they were given
real responsibility and we’re trusted
they see things that other kids don’t
see they make connections that other
kids don’t make their grades were not
important to them they just wanted to
learn and explore now many of them were
homeschooled officially or in their
extra time after school for them it’s
about crafting and owning their own
learning experiences these young
innovators find their own mentors in
parents grandparents uncles aunts
friends of the family and even teachers
one that support their differences and
not
to try to coach them into being
something they are just not now what is
a parent and a teacher to do give these
kids a time responsibility and
permission to explore without expected
outcomes trust them to explore even if
you have no idea what they’re talking
about provide unwavering support to
explore on their own terms but give them
the tools to be safe and used values
don’t force them to always clean up
their explorations because you never
know what groundbreaking ideas are in
the works and need more time to
percolate I got four takeaways one
immerse them in places that inspire them
to don’t let grades or other definition
of success define who they are and where
they’re going allow them to take
responsibility for their own learning
and explorations and for most
importantly don’t put them in mrs.
Wilson’s bottom desk drawer because they
didn’t follow directions
that’s the innovators journey thank you
Please follow and like us: