get your kid on

when we aim to be childish, we aim to be great

(I would continue with the blogging today,

but after you click the link, you'll see that

Adora says all that I would like to anyway.

and much better to boot)

a kiss is just a kiss

kissing is man's greatest invention

. tom robbins .

so I've decided to take a break from my research interests for a little bit and have some fun in my Vygotsky class (those of you who don't know, Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who was one of the first, if not the first sociocultural or historical-cultural psychologists... he's also, as you can see, pretty dreamy, not least of of all because of his funny hair, brilliant theories and celebrity like status).

back to the fun. we have been assigned Studio Day 1 : Find Vygotsky. basically, we choose a place and time when we see Vygotsky at work and then we build our project. I'm stepping away from my creativity research to play around with something different :

the kiss

breaking it down, here's my theory :

• I got all metacognitive about kissing a few weeks ago after thinking about what I had thought about kissing in years past
• Vygotsky argues that we learn through cultural and cognitive tools (tools being anything from language to hammers to computers) and that you can't individually measure someone's intelligence (or creativity or what have you) outside of context
• hand in hand with that idea, Vygotsky talks about using a 'unit of analysis' instead of 'elements' when designing methodology

(for example - although this was refuted by a scientist or two, I think, for metaphor's sake, we'll still go with it - to study water and why it puts out fire, breaking it down into 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen isn't going to help. you have to study them together to understand why water puts out fire. or better, to understand life you should begin with the cell instead of breaking it into its parts - like mitochondria. the cell is a UNIT of analysis in understanding life)

• to study children, adults are in a tricky position: even when we do recognize children as a separate culture, we still feel like it's a culture that we know and understand b/c we have already passed through it. I wanted to come up with a 'tool' that everyone uses but that dramatically changes and alters over the course of a lifetime
• in Vygotsky's Speech + Thought, chapter five is all about 'concept development' and the development of abstract thinking - which relates directly to my work with kiddos (lots of people believe children generally don't or can't think abstractly... I strongly disagree)
• the kiss is abstract
• we learn to kiss with and from other people as well as from culture (after a lot of hand + pillow practice of course)

when you add it all together I'm arguing that a kiss is a cultural tool that can help us understand our own experiences, as well as concept development in kiddos.

elements of the project :

• a collection of 'kiss stories'
• the same first kiss story as told from both perspectives of the kissers (yes, mine... I can't let you all embarrass yourself alone)
• a bunch of analysis and research shenanigans that I sort of mentioned above
• kisses in culture
• most importantly, a collection of 'hopeful' first kiss stories (those who haven't had a first kiss yet)

in other words : if you've got kiss stories or thoughts

on kissing or learning,

or learning by kissing

passing them on would be greatly appreciated.

I'll get back to my regular studies in a few weeks.

xx

what to be when I grow up?

Last summer, I separated my life into boxes; some labeled Seattle, some labeled Home and others labeled Boots (boots, I would come to find out, are not entirely necessary in Seattle... much like winter coats). And then I headed home to upstate New York.

When parents would explain to their friends and our family what I was going to Seattle for, my mom would say either education or museum education (she actually pulled up the museology program website once to show someone and it wasn't even a program I had applied to). On the other hand, my dad would laugh and say to join a cult (unless, of course he had one too many manhattans, at which point he would sit me down at the kitchen counter and very seriously - without any laughter - tell me not to join a cult).

When I was asked what I was going for, I also didn't quite know how to answer, even now it's difficult. Maybe this is a good place to attempt to explain my studies and research.

program : Learning Sciences, an interdisciplinary field of Educational Psychology - basically neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, museum educators, school educators, researchers, behaviorists, cupcake lovers, children, people who don't know what else to do with their life, etc, get together to try to figure out how people learn and what that means on a variety of different planes

To make some money I'm nannying a 14 month old 5 days/week and on our walk today I overheard a little boy saying to his mom "I did good coloring so I always get a new coloring book. I didn't have any white and I didn't scribble." This is the basis of much of my research: what makes children's art 'good'? Do we let children just go about their merry way and produce whatever it is that they would like? Or do we push them to try harder, to do better? Does pushing them kill their creativity? What happens when we kill creativity?

Our culture has defined creativity (+ imagination for that matter) as a trait only a select few carry. In companies there are whole teams and departments set aside for the 'creative' folk. It is a socially acceptable practice to say 'I'm not creative', but what does this say about our culture? Surely this is not a healthy practice.

Art and innovation are namely appreciated through artist appreciation, in doing so, we ignore the concept of creativity as a social practice, a trait that we nurture and grow together, through our experiences and interactions.

What am I trying to say here? I'm super new to this, but here are my theories:

• creativity is a social practice, not an individual practice (although, individual practice and nurture surely help the production of creativity output)
• creativity is not just for the arts! it is an intellectual capacity that we can use whenever we are engaged
• imagination is the ability to think of what could be, creativity is the guts + space to try it out and innovation is the product of a creative endeavor that changes a context in a significant way

And how does this relate to art museums? Art education programs are being cut across the board, research right now is brilliant, but policy isn't matching. Art museums are unique in that they have a choice: hang art on the wall or be a significant part of community development + enhancement. I would never work in a museum that practiced the first. Public engagement and social interaction set the museum as a stage to open debate to some tough questions, but more importantly, and perhaps inadvertently, to the acceptance and value of mistakes - without mistakes, there is no creativity and without creativity, there is no innovation and so on and so forth.

This, sadly, was probably a terribly boring post, but I suppose background into my research is helpful (and now my mom no longer has to show the museology website, she can just pull this up!)

So what do I want to be when I grow up? Right now, I want to be a museum educator, but research and theory are extremely important parts for me, so don't be shocked if in a year from now I tell you I'm going for my PhD instead. Until then, I'll just be a nanny, out for adventures.

xx.

there's always a critic

email from my 11 year old sister concerning my blogging career:

right when i clicked on it i logged out.. it looks to boring

point taken, I will do my best to increase the excitement. just not right this second.

why b to the log-izzle?

often times I hear people say that blogging is for the self important. I have been known to say such things from time to time (read: always) myself. however, with my family and friends back on the east coast, and my head swarming with buzzy bee thoughts nearly all of the time, blogging is my next big adventure.

I will, for just as much your sake as to challenge myself to not become so very self important (surely you don't need to know what I ate for lunch or did at exactly 2:13pm on any given day), attempt to focus and filter my words through my studies. you can be certain that you will also find a mountain adventure or two, and perhaps some words of good cheer just to keep you interested as well.

there is something to be said for the very self important blogger - those who believe that their blog will eventually lead to the next great american novel or that the breakfast they ate will change one of their follower's days. if once in a while we didn't feel that what we had to say was important, nothing innovative would ever happen. life would surely be dull.

I, however, do not just want to chat to you, so please comment all you'd like, agree or better yet, disagree with me. your ideas, thoughts and impressions are worth far more than what I could possibly write without them and your responses are what promote my growth as a researcher, a writer, a thinker and an aspiring five year old.



most importantly, and surely you're dying to know...

I had a whole wheat cranberry walnut scone for breakfast.