Katharyn Havens argues you don't need an art degree to teach creativity. She introduces symphonic thinking, linking unrelated ideas like curiosity and mountain, then expressing the connection through writing and art. The key is giving kids permission, space, and simple tools to explore.
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Do you agree that we need to reinvent education? Maybe you do, that's why you're watching this video. Do you agree that you need a degree to be able to teach your kids to reinvent their education? Yes, you do. But I'm here to tell you, no, you don't. You don't need that. I don't have a degree in art, but you know what? I realized if they gave a degree in creativity, I would have that one. And you probably would too. You just don't think of it because everyone's told you, you have to, I don't know, be a famous painter to be an artist. That's what we're taught to believe. If you ask like 10 friends, are you an artist? None of them will say yes unless you're really cool and you like live in New York or somewhere and have cool friends. I don't, but What I realized is I have a degree in life. Yay me! I might even have a master's degree in life. And you know what I'm doing with my degree today? I'm cutting up a pair of jeans because we're doing this fun exercise and I'm having the kids relate two words together that don't go together. And then they're going to do an art piece to explain How they see these two things going together. You know what that's called? Creativity. That's called symphonic thinking. Why is my camera wiggling and jiggling? What is going on? That is so weird. Okay, what I was saying, we're relating two things together. For example, curiosity is like a mountain. And they have to tell me why do they think that and write a few sentences about it. And so that's helping them not only think creatively and connect unrelated things, but then we incorporate writing and then we're going to incorporate all of that into an art piece. And this idea of symphonic thinking, of taking unrelated things and putting them together, is going to be the superpower of the future. I'm sorry to tell you, but having a degree in like accounting or whatever, okay, that might be fine, but the AI can do that. So how do we teach creativity? Well, you take your degree in life, your degree in solving problems, and you just make a few small parameters and give them the space and a couple of tools to be creative. Because kids actually want to be creative. They want to do this already. You don't have to teach them. You have to help them unlearn these arbitrary rules that have been put upon them. So that's what I encourage you to do today. First of all, starting with yourself, just explore being creative. It's, it's actually easier than you think. It takes time. Put on some fun music. Take some old thing and cut it up. Be destructive. That's just as fun, right? Anyway, that's what I'm talking about today. Take your degree in life that you have and the permission slip that I'm giving you right now. Permission granted to cut things up and start over. That's how we're going to reinvent education. Yep, I hope you'll join me.
