well good afternoon everyone it’s good
to see you all so there’s a question
that many educators from around the
world that are that are grappling with
and that is how do we better prepare
young people to respond productively to
the uncertainties of a changing world
what makes this question so challenging
is that we don’t like uncertainty it’s
an uncomfortable feeling we want to
quickly get rid of it and in the context
of schools and classrooms what we often
do is we replace uncertainty with
problems that have been selected by
other people that are often already
solved and predetermined methods right
and what that tends to do is kind of
over structure young people’s learning
experiences the benefit of doing that
however is you can still learn from
worked examples but it kind of puts
uncertainty off to some other day so I
kind of want to spend just a few minutes
we have together to kind of challenge
this some day response to uncertainty
and it’s a challenge my grandmother
challenged me with some 20 plus years
ago as I was heading off to graduate
school and so I’m a first-generation
college student both my grandparents are
immigrants from Italy and Sicily and we
gathered to kind of this sending away
party where there’s a lot of food
although my family didn’t need a reason
to gather and eat but this happened to
be the reason that day and as far as the
end of the evening we’re all kind of
circled around and my grandmother was
sitting in the middle of the circle
alphand Zena tag Laila Varde and she
called me forward and I thought what she
was going to say to me and she took my
hand was Ronnie we’re so proud of you
first-generation college student going
on to graduate school that’s not what
she said she said Ronnie you have such
beautiful hands
okay Bella Ronnie I was like well thank
you nan I do use moisturizer if that’s
what you’re talking about
and she said feel my hands and I felt
her hands and they were riddled with
calluses and then she asked don’t you
work Ronnie and I was kind of quick so I
said yes of course I worked Nana I work
in the workshop of the mind but I have
calluses around my brain and she said I
think you have calluses on your Kulu
your bottom if you said when are you
going to get off your bottom and put all
this learning to work in the world when
are you going to make a difference and
the best response I could muster while
us someday Nana and then she challenged
me with why not now
why not today something that’s kind of
haunted me from that day and so if we
kind of take my grandmother’s challenge
and revisit that question that so many
of us are wrestling with it turns into
how can we expect young people to engage
productively with uncertainty if they’re
never given the opportunities to
practice doing so as young people and so
I think in order to kind of address that
question we have to kind of revisit our
relationship with uncertainty and yes
uncertainty is uncomfortable and it does
elicit fears but it’s also an
opportunity it’s a signifier that new
thought and new action is necessary and
in this way it serves as a catalyst for
a creative response rather than a
someday response so in the remaining
just moments I just want to go through
the what when why and how of a creative
response so we can understand what that
kind of looks like so what is a creative
response imagine a young kid in a class
working on a math problem so it’s like
an in-class quiz so it’s elementary
school it’s a double column subtraction
problem let’s say it’s 26 minus 17 okay
and so in response this kid writes a
little poem about how you can still get
gained through loss house through
subtraction you can still add Beauty and
uses a metaphor of a bonsai tree as an
example now do you think that’s a
creative response I see some people
shaking their head yes somewhere maybe I
don’t know some or maybe no so maybe I
don’t care I’m hungry what okay so what
would creativity researchers say what we
would say I would think the majorities
would say that’s certainly an original
response but it’s not creative
creativity requires a blend of
originality and meeting task constraints
as defined within a particular context
so well that kids response is original
that kids not meeting the task
constraints of solving that particular
problem in that context so let’s
consider another kid in that same
classroom same problem 26 minus 17 and
so this kid gets the correct answer 9
okay and so has any good teacher the
teacher wants to know how the kid
arrived at
answer and so since how did you get that
answer let’s say this kid says I added
three back to six and got nine now
that’s an unusual response is that
creative what would creativity
researchers say those of us that work in
schools and classrooms would say well it
depends oftentimes what an unusual
response is could be a signifier of a
creative response it could also be a
signifier of confusion it could be a
signifier of a kid wanting to willfully
disrupt the lesson which is a different
kind of creativity and sometimes
necessary but we’ll talk about that
later
so as any good teacher the teacher wants
to kind of explore this and resist the
temptation which I’ve done as an
educator myself and do something like
this you know why don’t you think about
that some more let’s call on somebody
else I call that killing ideas softly
right so this teacher doesn’t do that
and draws this kids rationale out and
this is based on an actual kid’s
response so this kid says 26 – 17 I take
the six and seven set them aside for a
second now I have 20 minus 10 which is
10 I subtract seven from that 10 that
gives me 3 add that 3 back to 6 and
that’s 9 guess what folks that’s a
creative response it’s unusual but it’s
also mathematically accurate in the
constraints of that okay so that’s the
what a blend of originality meeting task
constraints what about the when and what
about this first kid this little
aspiring poet do we just let this little
aspiring poet will languish away with
this little seedling of a poet wither
and die now what we recognize as
creativity researchers is that
accomplished creators have developed the
capacity to read the environment they
understand that there is a time and a
place for creativity they know when to
be creative and when not to be creative
what my colleague James Kaufman I call
creative metacognition they’ve kind of
developed that capacity and so sometimes
it’s hard for advocates of creativity to
hear that there’s a time and a place for
creativity because we think it’s so
positive and it’s always useful and so I
have this little thought experiment that
I use to remind myself and others that
there is in fact a time in a place so
imagine you’re on a routine flight and
the captain comes on the plane and says
something like oh yeah this is a routine
flight we’re flying over this body of
water I’ve been thinking about this
creative water landing I’d like to break
out right about now of course
not no way but if the plane was in
trouble then by all means use your
creative water landing and so again this
is an illustrates that there isn’t time
in a place and I think one of the most
beautiful quotes that I’ve heard that
kind of illustrates this is attributed
to Miles Davis the great American jazz
musician and Miles Davis says there are
no wrong notes in jazz just notes in the
wrong places
isn’t that beautiful and if you think
about that as we think about that young
kid that poet the little poem that he
wrote it’s not that that poem is a wrong
response right it’s just a response in
the wrong place and so our
responsibility would be to help that kid
find the appropriate time in place to
express that poetry so that’s the what
and the when the why we’ve been talking
about why do you want a creative
response when you’re facing uncertainty
in what’s worked in the past no longer
works or you want to improve upon
practices which leads us to the how so
how do we do this I would argue that we
need to present young people with
semi-structured experiences so the key
is semi-structured if you remove all
structure you have chaos and creativity
really doesn’t thrive in chaos it needs
those kinds of constraints but we don’t
want to over structure experiences like
we typically do and so what does this
semi structured experience look like
I’ll give you some examples they can be
very modest experiences with uncertainty
all the way to much more ambitious ones
so here’s a modest one so imagine you
have some math story problems you ask
the kids to solve the problem and then
the way you introduce uncertainty is
unstructured bit and say don’t just
solve it in the one way that we’ve
demonstrated solve it in as many ways as
you possibly can that kind of thing can
generate multiple solutions let’s say it
generates 13 or more solutions in that
classroom that are mathematically
accurate and different now that raises a
really important question for us are we
going to learn more from learning how to
solve one problem thirteen different
ways or 13 different problems in one way
which is way we typically assign
practice and homework problems and the
truth is probably a blend there’s some
probably some sort of optimal blend of
the two so that’s a modest example what
about a more ambitious example a more
ambitious example are
what I call legacy projects so legacy
projects are designed for students by
students in order to make an impact in
the world that makes a lasting
difference and they’re used they just
have four simple design questions what’s
the problem why does it matter what are
we going to do about it and what lasting
impact are we going to make and so again
the students work through these problems
and I’ll give you an example an example
would be a group of bilingual students
who identify in their community there
are families that are not receiving
critically important health-related
educationally related or community
related information because it’s not
being translated so they develop this
translation service and they partner
with community organizations and
businesses to open up these lines of
communication and then the legacy
component of this is that they make sure
that upcoming generations take over this
work and so the work has its lasting
legacy and impact in the community as
they go on and graduate and in all cases
even in the mass story problem all the
way to legacy projects young people are
able to engage with uncertainty to sit
with it to learn how to sit with that
difficulty to generate new possibilities
to ask what if to move from what
currently is to what could or should be
to then evaluate those possibilities
prune them down and most importantly to
take action you could have the greatest
idea in the world but if you can’t take
action on it or are not willing to take
action on it it’s meaningless and I
think it’s through these kinds of
experiences of meaningfully engaging
with uncertainty and developing these
productive lasted responses that young
people already are and certainly can do
more of developing the kinds of calluses
my grandmother
mentioned so many years ago thank
I see yes
to see you all so there’s a question
that many educators from around the
world that are that are grappling with
and that is how do we better prepare
young people to respond productively to
the uncertainties of a changing world
what makes this question so challenging
is that we don’t like uncertainty it’s
an uncomfortable feeling we want to
quickly get rid of it and in the context
of schools and classrooms what we often
do is we replace uncertainty with
problems that have been selected by
other people that are often already
solved and predetermined methods right
and what that tends to do is kind of
over structure young people’s learning
experiences the benefit of doing that
however is you can still learn from
worked examples but it kind of puts
uncertainty off to some other day so I
kind of want to spend just a few minutes
we have together to kind of challenge
this some day response to uncertainty
and it’s a challenge my grandmother
challenged me with some 20 plus years
ago as I was heading off to graduate
school and so I’m a first-generation
college student both my grandparents are
immigrants from Italy and Sicily and we
gathered to kind of this sending away
party where there’s a lot of food
although my family didn’t need a reason
to gather and eat but this happened to
be the reason that day and as far as the
end of the evening we’re all kind of
circled around and my grandmother was
sitting in the middle of the circle
alphand Zena tag Laila Varde and she
called me forward and I thought what she
was going to say to me and she took my
hand was Ronnie we’re so proud of you
first-generation college student going
on to graduate school that’s not what
she said she said Ronnie you have such
beautiful hands
okay Bella Ronnie I was like well thank
you nan I do use moisturizer if that’s
what you’re talking about
and she said feel my hands and I felt
her hands and they were riddled with
calluses and then she asked don’t you
work Ronnie and I was kind of quick so I
said yes of course I worked Nana I work
in the workshop of the mind but I have
calluses around my brain and she said I
think you have calluses on your Kulu
your bottom if you said when are you
going to get off your bottom and put all
this learning to work in the world when
are you going to make a difference and
the best response I could muster while
us someday Nana and then she challenged
me with why not now
why not today something that’s kind of
haunted me from that day and so if we
kind of take my grandmother’s challenge
and revisit that question that so many
of us are wrestling with it turns into
how can we expect young people to engage
productively with uncertainty if they’re
never given the opportunities to
practice doing so as young people and so
I think in order to kind of address that
question we have to kind of revisit our
relationship with uncertainty and yes
uncertainty is uncomfortable and it does
elicit fears but it’s also an
opportunity it’s a signifier that new
thought and new action is necessary and
in this way it serves as a catalyst for
a creative response rather than a
someday response so in the remaining
just moments I just want to go through
the what when why and how of a creative
response so we can understand what that
kind of looks like so what is a creative
response imagine a young kid in a class
working on a math problem so it’s like
an in-class quiz so it’s elementary
school it’s a double column subtraction
problem let’s say it’s 26 minus 17 okay
and so in response this kid writes a
little poem about how you can still get
gained through loss house through
subtraction you can still add Beauty and
uses a metaphor of a bonsai tree as an
example now do you think that’s a
creative response I see some people
shaking their head yes somewhere maybe I
don’t know some or maybe no so maybe I
don’t care I’m hungry what okay so what
would creativity researchers say what we
would say I would think the majorities
would say that’s certainly an original
response but it’s not creative
creativity requires a blend of
originality and meeting task constraints
as defined within a particular context
so well that kids response is original
that kids not meeting the task
constraints of solving that particular
problem in that context so let’s
consider another kid in that same
classroom same problem 26 minus 17 and
so this kid gets the correct answer 9
okay and so has any good teacher the
teacher wants to know how the kid
arrived at
answer and so since how did you get that
answer let’s say this kid says I added
three back to six and got nine now
that’s an unusual response is that
creative what would creativity
researchers say those of us that work in
schools and classrooms would say well it
depends oftentimes what an unusual
response is could be a signifier of a
creative response it could also be a
signifier of confusion it could be a
signifier of a kid wanting to willfully
disrupt the lesson which is a different
kind of creativity and sometimes
necessary but we’ll talk about that
later
so as any good teacher the teacher wants
to kind of explore this and resist the
temptation which I’ve done as an
educator myself and do something like
this you know why don’t you think about
that some more let’s call on somebody
else I call that killing ideas softly
right so this teacher doesn’t do that
and draws this kids rationale out and
this is based on an actual kid’s
response so this kid says 26 – 17 I take
the six and seven set them aside for a
second now I have 20 minus 10 which is
10 I subtract seven from that 10 that
gives me 3 add that 3 back to 6 and
that’s 9 guess what folks that’s a
creative response it’s unusual but it’s
also mathematically accurate in the
constraints of that okay so that’s the
what a blend of originality meeting task
constraints what about the when and what
about this first kid this little
aspiring poet do we just let this little
aspiring poet will languish away with
this little seedling of a poet wither
and die now what we recognize as
creativity researchers is that
accomplished creators have developed the
capacity to read the environment they
understand that there is a time and a
place for creativity they know when to
be creative and when not to be creative
what my colleague James Kaufman I call
creative metacognition they’ve kind of
developed that capacity and so sometimes
it’s hard for advocates of creativity to
hear that there’s a time and a place for
creativity because we think it’s so
positive and it’s always useful and so I
have this little thought experiment that
I use to remind myself and others that
there is in fact a time in a place so
imagine you’re on a routine flight and
the captain comes on the plane and says
something like oh yeah this is a routine
flight we’re flying over this body of
water I’ve been thinking about this
creative water landing I’d like to break
out right about now of course
not no way but if the plane was in
trouble then by all means use your
creative water landing and so again this
is an illustrates that there isn’t time
in a place and I think one of the most
beautiful quotes that I’ve heard that
kind of illustrates this is attributed
to Miles Davis the great American jazz
musician and Miles Davis says there are
no wrong notes in jazz just notes in the
wrong places
isn’t that beautiful and if you think
about that as we think about that young
kid that poet the little poem that he
wrote it’s not that that poem is a wrong
response right it’s just a response in
the wrong place and so our
responsibility would be to help that kid
find the appropriate time in place to
express that poetry so that’s the what
and the when the why we’ve been talking
about why do you want a creative
response when you’re facing uncertainty
in what’s worked in the past no longer
works or you want to improve upon
practices which leads us to the how so
how do we do this I would argue that we
need to present young people with
semi-structured experiences so the key
is semi-structured if you remove all
structure you have chaos and creativity
really doesn’t thrive in chaos it needs
those kinds of constraints but we don’t
want to over structure experiences like
we typically do and so what does this
semi structured experience look like
I’ll give you some examples they can be
very modest experiences with uncertainty
all the way to much more ambitious ones
so here’s a modest one so imagine you
have some math story problems you ask
the kids to solve the problem and then
the way you introduce uncertainty is
unstructured bit and say don’t just
solve it in the one way that we’ve
demonstrated solve it in as many ways as
you possibly can that kind of thing can
generate multiple solutions let’s say it
generates 13 or more solutions in that
classroom that are mathematically
accurate and different now that raises a
really important question for us are we
going to learn more from learning how to
solve one problem thirteen different
ways or 13 different problems in one way
which is way we typically assign
practice and homework problems and the
truth is probably a blend there’s some
probably some sort of optimal blend of
the two so that’s a modest example what
about a more ambitious example a more
ambitious example are
what I call legacy projects so legacy
projects are designed for students by
students in order to make an impact in
the world that makes a lasting
difference and they’re used they just
have four simple design questions what’s
the problem why does it matter what are
we going to do about it and what lasting
impact are we going to make and so again
the students work through these problems
and I’ll give you an example an example
would be a group of bilingual students
who identify in their community there
are families that are not receiving
critically important health-related
educationally related or community
related information because it’s not
being translated so they develop this
translation service and they partner
with community organizations and
businesses to open up these lines of
communication and then the legacy
component of this is that they make sure
that upcoming generations take over this
work and so the work has its lasting
legacy and impact in the community as
they go on and graduate and in all cases
even in the mass story problem all the
way to legacy projects young people are
able to engage with uncertainty to sit
with it to learn how to sit with that
difficulty to generate new possibilities
to ask what if to move from what
currently is to what could or should be
to then evaluate those possibilities
prune them down and most importantly to
take action you could have the greatest
idea in the world but if you can’t take
action on it or are not willing to take
action on it it’s meaningless and I
think it’s through these kinds of
experiences of meaningfully engaging
with uncertainty and developing these
productive lasted responses that young
people already are and certainly can do
more of developing the kinds of calluses
my grandmother
mentioned so many years ago thank
I see yes
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