That sideways look – the art of creativity

Some attributes of creativity:

Challenging assumptions

Being receptive to new ideas

Recognizing similarities or differences

Making unlikely connections

Taking risks

Building on ideas to make better ideas

Looking at things in new ways

Taking advantage of the unexpected

from The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher

Multiple perspectives

Still Life with Fruit Basket - Paul Cezanne

Think globally with awareness and understanding of complexity and multiple perspectives

Predators have eyes in the front so they can see their prey. Prey have eyes on each side so they can watch out for predators. Flatfish, like the flounder, have eyes on one side so they can blend into the sea bed and hide. Humans have eyes spaced apart and they can see things from two angles and as three dimensional objects.

So much for biology. The human brain is a cathedral of complexity that frees us from the univision of one dimensional thinking. The more we learn of the world the more interconnected, fractured and dizzying it can become. Cultures see things differently – over time and space. There is always another way of seeing, another point of view to take into consideration as we arrive at our own conclusions.

Perspective is a ghastly mistake which it has taken four centuries to redress - Georges Braque

In his book Cezanne’s Composition (1943) Erle Loran diagrams the four different perspectives at work in the painting above:

The painting itself is in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Progress

Out with the old hoops, in with the new floor. The gym is looking good.

Checking the plans in the parking lot, checking the rock shelf in front of Gilkeson
Moving the rock in the playground and the summer camp has lunch on the porch of Kenyon House.

Ground broken….

I came to work after a drilling at the dentist to the joyous sound of jackhammers at work.

The posts are in, the fence erected and the Gilkeson enhancement project is underway. The fence surrounds the front of the building where the new science labs will be. The backhoe is already at work. The playground area is also fenced off in preparation for the construction of two new classrooms and office space. The new maple hardwood for the new gym floor has been delivered.

Here is a collage of pictures from the first days. It’s a lot more exciting than the root canal.

School goes wild

Graduation was on Wednesday and all the students were gone by the end of the day. And then the rains came and the leaks in Gilkeson began. An investigation of the roof indicated raccoon damage – teeth and claw marks. All fixed now. These pictures are of a raccoon on the Kenyon House roof this spring. Steve Mallet to the rescue With the help of Animal Control this particular animal was captured – to be taken for a vetinary check and a release to a more appropriate home.

Keep the connection…expand the horizon

Children are natural learners. It’s what they do. And the learning is joyful and the thirst for knowledge, understanding and mastery of skills insatiable.

The primary task of school is to keep that connection with joyful learning vibrant and intact. The second task is to expand the horizons of learners – to provide opportunity, to create new contexts and scaffold the learner’s ability to reach higher, further and deeper.

As students move into the older grades they are introduced to the intellectual and academic disciplines in more formal and demanding ways. A curriculum and a community must be vigorous and rigorous while maintaining that vital connection between love and learning.

When students move into high school they confront requirements, credits and credit distribution and all the other “stuff” that goes with secondary education and preparation for college. Choice and flexibility become even more important. As students develop their passions and interests school must continue to broaden horizons as well as create opportunities for personalized and independent learning.

If we want to graduate students who are “intellectually curious and active seekers, users and creators of knowledge” then we must structure the curriculum and the school day to make that possible. That means student engagement with their own learning, choice and flexibility. PDS has expanded its high school curriculum with these values in mind. Take a look.

What do we know about bees?

The pre-k children know a lot about bees and their wall display shows it. I found this on their classroom wall and it reminded me of a wonderful interview Listen to the Bees in About Town – the local community paper for northern Dutchess that I picked up at the grocery store. My mother kept bees and I have always had a passing interest and superficial knowledge of what has become the lost art of beekeeping.

If the pre-k know a lot then Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries knows even more. I learned that the Hudson Valley is historic bee territory but that knowledge of beekeeping is vanishing, that bees know best about bees, and agri-business bee keeping is a problem.

Here is Sam Comfort’s advice:
“Bees know what is best for bees. They’ve been doing it a long time. We need to step aside again. Go back to what the bees want to do.”
“Support local agriculture, including beekeepers. At least limit, and better still eliminate the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides around your home and neighborhood. This is where we all live! Stop treating so many beneficial, useful plants as “weeds” or “invasives.” The ecosystem is always changing. The most invasive plants in the world are corn, cotton, and soy.
Plant willows, maples, locusts, poplars, lindens, fruit trees, nitrogen-fixers, pollinator gardens. Support diversity of all kinds.
Grow your own food.
Bee the change.”

The digital deluge

Do you suffer from email apnea? Are your hunter-gatherer instincts affecting your attention span and productivity? Help – or at least serious recognition of the problem – may be at hand. See today’s NYTimes Lost in E-M ail,Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast.

Farewell 2007- 2008……

The end of the school year and a express train filled with events, final exams, feasts, pageants, displays, presentations, performances, ceremonies, farewells and of course graduation commencement. Read more about graduation from The Poughkeepsie Journal

I took this unofficial picture of the graduating class at the outdoor adventure trip last September.

Summer drama; Powerhouse apprentices

Nice article about two PDS students in the Poughkeepsie Journal

Students to study theater at Powerhouse

Hannah and Wiley, rising seniors, have been selected to participate in the Powerhouse apprentice training program at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie this summer.

Read more

Wylie and Hannah were seen recently in American Life in the James Earl Jones Theater at PDS

For information, visit www.poughkeepsieday.org and http://powerhouse.vassar.edu.