In this keynote, Sam Houston challenges the notion that university programs can be seamlessly aligned, labeling it a myth. He introduces the multi‑state STEMx partnership, emphasizing its role in advancing a national agenda that ties STEM education directly to economic competitiveness. Houston argues that the future of the U.S. hinges on fostering creativity, not just technical knowledge, and proposes a redefinition of STEM as “strategies that engage minds,” a broader concept that includes real‑world information use. He cites Chick Thompson of the Creative Management Group and the Young Presidents’ Organization as exemplars of teaching creativity, asserting that creativity can be learned by placing individuals in uncomfortable, unknown situations. Throughout, he stresses that creative capacity is essential for maintaining America’s global leadership in innovation, patents, and overall quality of life.
Chapters
Thank you, Karen. And if anyone in this audience believes that you can align a number of programs that sit in the university to do anything together, that is a myth. Absolute myth. And there's no myth about that, Robin. You're pregnant. Because I've seen you when you weren't, and there's something going on. It is exciting to have so many of you here, and we've got a number of states. I don't know exactly how many, maybe 7, 8, or 10 states that are represented here. Can you hear me? Um, part of, some of those states are part of a thing called STEMx, which is a multi-state partnership of states that are interested in moving this agenda. I consider this to be an agenda. The STEM wave that we're on is one that we need to ride because it's the best chance we've had in a while to connect the economy and education. And I'm convinced politically that we have to talk about the economy. It's not just about education, it's about the economy. You know, an education's about optimizing your dreams, being all that you want to be, maintaining the democratic way of life that we've had. But it's also sooner or later gets down to the point that it's about getting a job. I say frequently, how many, how many of you know young people who have gone off to school and then come back home to live? None of your children, I'm sure, but you know somebody that's done that, right? You know, we're the only species that doesn't either eat or kill their children if they come home. It's because they didn't get the right kind of education. The education that opened the door to the 21st century, which is going to be very technical, scientifically driven, without a doubt. We know that. But it's also not about things like this. How many of you know that we have discovered, it was in the newspaper January 25th of this year, that a proton is 4% smaller than we ever thought it was? Who cares? Well, some quantum physicist cares. But that's not the kind of education I'm talking about. What we have to have is young people who know what to do when they don't know what to do. Who are independent thinkers, who are thoughtful, not thoughtless. And that's a whole different way of thinking about what an outcome of an educational experience ought to be. It's not about just a few little test scores or knowing that you're— a proton's 4% smaller than it used to be. Or was it always 4% smaller than we thought it was? I, uh, You hear it said that if America's going to continue to be great on into the future, we have to be what? The most creative. We can't outproduce the rest of the world. We're going to have to lead the world from a creative standpoint. We're going to have to lead the world in patents that are honored. We're going to have to be more inventive. If we're going to maintain our status as what we hope is still the case, the number one country in the world. The best place in the world to live. So today we're going to have a great experience, I think, because I've done some reading. Chick, our speaker is Chick Thompson. He said don't worry about telling them that I'm the president of the Creative Management Group or that, and I didn't even know what this was, the YPO University. Any of you know what that is? The Young Presidents' Organization, or that he consults with physicians. But he's gonna talk to you about creativity. And if you haven't, you need to read his book. It's a— I found it exciting, fun to read. What a Great Idea 2.0. He's been studied. Harvard actually studied Chick. Thompson. That's an unusual thing to happen to anyone, I'm sure. And I'm convinced also that creativity isn't something that, as I've been told, people tell me that you're either born creative or you're not. And I've done a little research on that, Chick. I've asked people, "Are you a creative person?" And people will say, "Don't have a creative bone in my body," or, "Yes, I'm very creative." We can teach and advance creativity. Now my theory is a little different from his. I believe that creativity is learned by being placed in uncomfortable and unknown conditions. And it has to be both. It has to be an unknown situation and it has to be uncomfortable. It doesn't mean it has to hurt. But we can create environments like that. If we think about STEM as something other than science, technology, engineering, and math, and that's the next myth. That's always been a myth. Think about it as strategies that engage minds, and then you have a much larger environment to think about what's good and appropriate for young people in an educational experience. Strategies that engage minds, and by the way, we own the trademark on that. Actually, Dr. John Burrus, the president of the Burrus Welcome Fund, seated right here, owns that trademark, and we're looking for people to sue. That's how I plan to finance our work on Into the Future. But we own that trademark and because I think we believe that it's exactly what STEM should stand for. Sure, you've got to have a command of the disciplines. You've got to have content control. But you also have to understand how you use information like it's used in the real world and those are the strategies that engage minds that we have to deal with.
