Notes on Creativity and Culture

Culture has always offered me a powerful nexus for interpreting and exploring themes of learning.

My first experience of this phenomenon was aptly child-driven. In my second or third year of teaching, my full day casas came to me and announced they were doing a play … The Wizard of Oz. Not only had they planned it and cast it, but they suggested using language and arithmetic as tributaries of their endeavour.

We spent the year creating script books with pictures and dialogue. We designed word problems relating to yellow bricks, numbers of poppies and wind velocity. We used dance and gesture to explore emotion and enhance our story telling. The sets, painted on giant fridge boxes, were fought over by parents. We invented songs and lyrics using the bells and rhythm instruments. We explored history and geography using Frank Baum time, the prairies and mythical topographies as inspiration.

Our community coalesced as parents volunteered to create costumes. It was an eye-opener into deep learning, the importance of the arts, the power of story and collective narrative and it changed my life. Now, working with elementary, junior high, and student teachers, creativity and culture take a central role.