I’ll be honest, today’s Webspiration Wednesday was a flop. I wanted to introduce teachers to Daniel Pink’s a Whole New Mind and did a quick video search to see what I could find. I came up with an interview that Oprah did with Daniel Pink about his book. It would have been great if Oprah wouldn’t have opened her mouth. I think she mentioned that she donated 4,500 books to Stanford grads no less than 50 times. The interview wasn’t great, Oprah didn’t focus enough on the book, she was leading the questions to get the answers that she wanted. A flop. On the upside, teachers got enough of a glimpse into the book that they were left wanting to read it. So even though the video was a flop, the inspiration was still there. Our local library offers digital downloads and A Whole New Mind is one of the audio books available for download. My hope is that the staff will listen to it and think about how it relates to our classrooms and education. Daniel Pink has a discussion guide for educators that is free to download on his website. In the next few weeks, I hope to show Daniel Pink’s TED Talk on his newest book Drive (also excellent).
In A Whole New Mind, Pink asks us to consider the world that we are living in. He calls the age we find ourselves in the Conceptual age. In this age, many left brain jobs are disappearing. If a computer can do it faster, someone overseas can do it cheaper, or what you are offering isn’t in demand in this age of abundance, the job will become obsolete. So then, creativity becomes the competitive difference that can differentiate commodities. Pink outlines six essential senses that need to be developed:
- Design – Moving beyond function to engage the senses.
- Story – Narrative added to products and services.
- Symphony – Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
- Empathy – Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
- Play – Bringing humor and lightheartedness to business and products.
- Meaning – the purpose is the journey, give meaning to life from inside yourself.
As an educator, I am interested in how we can help our students develop these senses so that they can be prepared for the world ahead of them. Here is a clue: it has nothing to do with standardized testing!
Have you read A Whole New Mind? What take aways do you have for us?
If you haven’t read A Whole New Mind, I highly recommend it.
Now you have me interested in reading it as well. So see not a flop:)
I recommended that my school library purchase it a few weeks back. I’m patiently waiting for it to arrive as I have lots of other books on my reading list.
I have this on hold at the local library, so now I am really looking forward to reading it. Best wishes for Easter and thank you so much for all your wonderful initiatives and support!
I have read both of Daniel Pink’s books that you mentioned and I have shared them with other teachers in my school. I am a PLC leader for our math department and also showed the TED Talk that Dan gave a while back. I have really tried to incorporate more of the right brain learning/teaching into my classroom and it has allowed me to make math more intriguing to all of my students. I now have two other teachers who are reading his books…
Kelly, I am really inspired by all you do to help your teachers. What great ideas and resources. Where in the world do you find them all?!
Who’s Opera?
LOL, how embarrassing! This is what happens when you write a post too late and are constantly correcting students that “Opera” the web browser is not said “Oprah”. Oh dear, thanks for the catch 🙂
Thank you all for your votes of confidence! I’m glad I have inspired you to read Daniel Pink’s book, let me know what you think when you are finished!
Thanks! That is exactly what I was looking for…much better than Oprah’s interview.