Creative and Successful Beyond School

I now know what it would take to get rich. All I need is a nickle for every story I have read or heard about an individual who is anywhere from mildly to wildly creative and successful who has tales of frustration in K-12 school. Don't get me wrong, most of these stories include that "one teacher who . . ." Not all of them, but most of them speak of the teacher who recognized and developed the talent, the spark, the what later became a life story of creativity and success. I am reminded of movie producer Spielberg who needed to skip school to take photographs at sunrise in the desert, so his mom drove him to do that. Country singer, Marty Stuart tells a story of getting in trouble in a history class as he retorted to his teacher, "I don't want to read about history, I want to make history!" He went on the road at 13 years of age to start a prolific music career. In a hospital emergency room, the physician was chatting it up with me about what I do for living and then went on to tell me it wasn't until he was in 7th grade that he earned his first "A".

This tells us a few things. It tells us as educators to be that "one teacher who . . ." It tells us that there is bubbling potential in students that goes unrecognized and later erupts as undesired classroom behavior. It tells us that the "one size fits all" approach to education is about as realistic and attractive in our industry as it is in the fashion industry—it's not.

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As always, comments welcomed!

Stef