no right brain left behindassignment brief feb 7th 2011www.rightbrainsare.us | facebook | twitter | linkedin | slideshare

no right brain left behindassignment brief feb 7th 2011

Our starting pointIt’s no secret that education in the country needs to be restructured. The present system is not designed to nurture creativity in the next generation of thinkers who, ultimately, will move the world forward.

The challenge aheadThe current education system is headed in one direction and in order to make change, we need to take a sharp right turn. We need to come up with ideas that ease the creative crisis that’s happening in our schools and turn education on its head. Together, the creative community can achieve this.

What are we trying to achieve with our ideas?

— Provide the country’s education system (schools, institutions, government) with solutions that will overcome current conventions.

— Empower educators (teachers, tutors, mentors, parents) with new ways of nurturing creativity through actionable ideas.

— Nurture creativity in children through innovative concepts that once implemented, reignites their passion for learning.

The reality: Grounding ourselves [see attached Intelligence Brief for more in-depth info]

Let’s be frank…

— It would be naive to think we could change the US education system overnight. Yet, we are looking for big ideas that ‘rock the boat’ and small ideas that together can make a difference.

— While everyone recognizes the value of creativity in education, the sad truth is standardized tests focus solely on left brain skills and leaves the right brain behind.

— Plenty have tried; few have gained traction. We need to go beyond a cool one-off thing. We need game changing ideas - ones that can be adopted locally and scale nationally.

What do we need to do? Deliverables? Dreaming is cool as long as at the end of the day the ideas become tangible & actionable. We need ideas that can be put in practice as soon as possible around any [or several] of the following areas:

— Ideas that could be ‘implemented’ in the current school system

— Ideas that are ‘complementary’ to the current school system

— Ideas that work as an ‘alternative’ to the current school system, and why not,

— Ideas that just ‘redefine’ it all

Judging criteria — Does not already exist in the marketplace

— Ease of adoptability for educators

— Potential to overcome the current constraints of the education system

— Impact it has on fostering creativity in children

— Feasibility within the realm of existing technology

— Ability to reignite kids’ passion for learning

Something to keep in mindThis is not a challenge to create future artists… We’re looking for ideas that will teach kids how to use creativity to solve tomorrow’s problems. They’ll need both sides of the brain to successfully face the challenges of the 21st century. Let’s stay grounded.