Well, here I am dear readers. Blog post 1. Who knows how you have stumbled upon this blog. Perhaps similarly to me, there is something that drives you to see the world in a slightly different way; seeing beauty and having curiosity in how the world continues. I am schizophrenic embarking on this journey; having to trust that this blog will evolve and not wanting to somehow mess it all up. With that, I can promise it as a dedication to the beauty in sensing wonder about the world.

Elizabeth Gilbert speaks of this creative challenge in her book Big Magic . A conversation really about the hangups we all have to live an authentic life in taking time to imagine creative possibilities.

Gilbert writes- “The essential ingredients for creativity remain exactly the same for everybody: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust-and those elements are universally accessible. Which does not mean that creative living is always easy, it merely means that creative living is possible.”

With that I wonder about the connection between her essential ingredients for creativity and the permission we give ourselves to recognise the development of these elements. As a teacher, I wonder how often I have told my students “…and don’t forget be creative!” How daunting; especially in that some antonyms of creative are inept, unfruitful, and ungifted. It is no surprise living a creative life is daunting. In a world where children are more than ever expected to be creative how are we, as teachers or really as a society, fostering the essential ingredients Gilbert mentions? How are we pushing them to persevere and seek living a creative living?

Teaching with an inquiry based curriculum I find that I continually push my students to deepen their thinking. One anchor in my classroom is the poster I created (featured below). Often encouraging students to the bottom part of the iceberg; I find myself now wondering if more needs to be done to explicitly bring the essential creative ingredients alive in the classroom.

What do you wonder?