Creative Children

Argh, go read The Frontal Cortex! Go read it! Today's RTWT is about how school teachers tend not to want creative students. He ends it with yet another plea for arts education for our children... which is nice to hear from a neurologist, rather than the vested interest of an arts educator.

Building Community And Its Creativity

In my time blogging here, my one honor has been being in communication with a small group of intelligent, passionate people who are interested in developing the cultural conversation in and around communities. Whether looking at it on a national scale, or from a theater angle, for from a rural small community scale, we've gotten to stretch our legs discussing the theories of arts development in the United States.

So. A friend of mine who is in the Peace Corps in Senegal mentioned to me that she is embarking on a set of projects in a small town in Senegal (approx 20,000 residents). She chiefly wants to tackle cultural gender issues, and create an outlet for creativity that she says is stifled in the local schools. She asked me for advice.

I am drafting her an email with my own pearls of wisdom, but I wanted to ask the general community its thoughts. If you're reading this blog, you've probably spent time thinking about issues related to this one. What's the practical advice/solutions/directions you'd want to pass along?