monkeybars for young minds: new basics for new world kids

Monkeybars for Young Minds:

New Basicsfor New World Kids

• Every child is creative. It is our human heritage.

• Each child’s mind is as unique as a fingerprint.

•Children’s work in the future will be creating the new world.

•Change will be their constant companion.

• The tools we are giving them in school are no longer enough.

Business knows.

found that CREATIVITY is the most important

quality for leadership now...more than:

• existing best practices • management discipline

• rigor • operations

— 2010 Global CEO Study

Corporate Creativity Colleges teach:

• making mistakes is OK• using multiple media

is OK• play is good• reducing stress is good

Research knows.

• Digital Kids• Connected Learning

• 21st Century Skills

• Out of School Learning

Neuroscience knows.

The most important thing neuroscience tells us:

“Reduce stress and enrich like crazy.”

Education knows.(sort of)

“...the ability to be creative is a key 21st Century Skill.”

Partnership for 21st Century Skills:

And, despite what we all know:

This is where we’re putting all our educational

resources.

This is where kids are really LIVING.

Image and sound, in all their forms are just as important as

words and numbers in their power to:

• capture attention • communicate information

and ideas • change behavior.

This is information now.

An animation of this infographic was the most important TV ad in Obama’s 2012 campaign.

— Jim Messina, campaign mgr.

This will soon be the answer to a 6th grade

math story problem.

This is why we buy things.

This is their media.

If we want children to “speak image,”they need new thinking tools.

HOW do you make a literacy of creativity?

alphabet numbers

Today’s BASICS:

spoken words(language)

traditional alphabet

spoken words(language)

EXPRESSIVE FORMS:oratory, singing,

conversation, etc.

traditional alphabet

spoken words(language)

EXPRESSIVE FORMS:oratory, singing,

conversation, etc.

written words(reading and writing)

traditional alphabet

spoken words(language)

EXPRESSIVE FORMS:oratory, singing,

conversation, etc.

written words(reading and writing)

EXPRESSIVE FORMS:contracts, books,

email, grocery lists

traditional alphabet

numbers

mathmetics(algebra, subtraction,

geometry, etc)

numbers

mathmetics(algebra, subtraction,

geometry, etc)

EXPRESSIVE FORMS:cosmology, accounting,

physics, scorekeeping

numbers

numbers traditionalalphabet

traditionalalphabetsensory

alphabet

numbers traditionalalphabet

traditionalalphabetsensory

alphabet

numbers traditionalalphabet

traditionalalphabetsensory

alphabet

line, color, texture, shape, sound, light, movement, rhythm, space

numbers traditionalalphabet

traditionalalphabetsensory

alphabet

line, color, texture, shape, sound, light, movement, rhythm, space

cameras, people, paint, plants, fabric, food,

digital media, etc., etc

numbers traditionalalphabet

traditionalalphabetsensory

alphabet

line, color, texture, shape, sound, light, movement, rhythm, space

cameras, people, paint, plants, fabric, food,

digital media, etc., etc

cooking, gardening, carpentry,

photography,dancing, engineering, teaching, business, etc., etc...EVERYTHING ELSE!

Everything!

The Sensory

Alphabet

• color• line • shape• sound• light• movement• texture • space • rhythm

Line

Space

Rhythm

Sound

Light

Texture

Move-ment

Shape

Color

Before we learn to think in words, we think naturally inPictures, sound and movement.

The Sensory Alphabet creates internal monkeybars

for young minds.

• Sensory Alphabet• Creative Process• Each Child’s Individual Strengths

The path to a literacy of creativity begins here:

Intermission(for interactivities)

We believe that real creativity cannot be

divorced from individuality.

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability

to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.”

— Albert Einstein

Henry

Grace

Pedro

Pedro

Space Day

Henry

Grace

Color Day

Henry

Grace

Pedro

Texture Day

Henry

GracePedro

Me Papers

Henry

GracePedro

Grace

Last Day ProjectsHenry

Pedro

Henry thinks best in 3-D SHAPE.

Pedrothinks best with LINES

Grace thinks best with tactile information.TEXTURE

We share with

parents.

We share with

parents.

There are at least 8 intelligences:

• verbal• logical• spatial (visual)• kinesthetic• musical/rhythmic• interpersonal (people smart)• intrapersonal (self smart)• naturalist (includes nature

smart and the ability to compare and classify)

Gardner’sMultiple

Intelligences:

There are at least 8 intelligences:

• verbal• logical• spatial (visual)• kinesthetic• musical/rhythmic• interpersonal (people smart)• intrapersonal (self smart)• naturalist (includes nature

smart and the ability to compare and classify)

These are the ones

we are rewarding

in schools.

When we design curricula and programs, we begin with the

child, not with the information.

This shift is subtle, but profound.

New World Kids basic

formula:

1. Teach the Sensory Alphabet

using the creative thinking

processes.

2. Decipher each child’s creative strengths.

3. Provide materials and experiences that

resonate with those strengths.

4. Involve the parents and the community.

We invite you to join us in creating a literacy of creativity:

We need all the children now, ready to invent the new world.

You’re the ones!

See The Missing Alphabet for more information.

© The Foundry, 2014