monkeybars for young minds: new basics for new world kids
DESCRIPTION
Before young children learn to think in words, they think naturally in pictures, sound and movement. Play (in many media) is their natural way of learning. The sensory alphabet we’ll introduce gives “voice” to each child’s best ways of thinking and knowing, offering a personalized path into the abstract world of school. And because this approach interweaves higher order thinking skills and critical thinking skills, it mirrors the child’s natural way of thinking. These elements, in a simple pedagogy, provide a new kind of interior framework for the creative thinking skills the future will demand. It’s as powerful as the ABC’s are for reading.TRANSCRIPT
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