In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; a grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak. – James Lowell
I’ve spent my whole life trying to learn about creating. It’s a lot harder than you might believe. There are so many messages available to us moderns from our culture, that we might not wind up creating anything at all, simply because so much is ready-to-wear: doctor, lawyer, business tycoon, celebrity.
My twenties were painful years because my creative process was like the rest of me, woefully immature. The rock bands and folk gigs of my twenties helped me learn some things, but I suspect I learned even more by being the holder of several ‘bad jobs’ that were required to pay the rent. In NYC, I was a messenger and managed the mailroom of a Big8 accounting firm; in NH where I went to set my soul free I sold furniture and delivered eyeglasses. In addition to playing and writing music, I began writing stories and poems. But by my early thirties, I had my crisis, burned my manuscripts and entered the ‘real workforce’.
Reganomics drove me to the doors of John Hancock Financial Services and unexpectedely I found myself employed. I would hold numerous positions rising in $$$ and responsibility until I realized I wasn’t a corporate guy and resigned in 1998. Resigning and starting a consultancy was scary and fun!!! I had plenty of opportunity to be creative running my consultancy. My work focused on brain-based learning, elearning and adult learning models. Simultaneously, I was becoming more and more involved with Cambridge College as a part-time faculty member working with K-12 teachers. I almost went out of business in the 2000-2001 school year when I agreed to serve as the co-chair of the college Senate. Eventually, I began spending most of my time teaching and learning about ideas, concepts, models and things that I believed would create the schoolhouse of the nowfuture. Some of the ideas about teaching and organizations also inspired me to teach in the fledging Masters of Management program at the college. This program examined some of the now more frequently (but not universal) human considerations to business in addition to the more ubiquitous number-crunching and scenario forecasting of the traditional M.B.A. Mostly it taught me the importance of synthesis as a means to use discrete prior learning experiences in new efforts.
Cambridge College around the turn of the century became an education partner with a fantastic non-profit, Year Up. I taught in the original Boston location for a few years, and besides acquiring some fabulous buys at the real Filene’s Basement in Downtown Crossing, I got to work with some of the smartest, eager and motivated young adults I have ever had the good fortune to meet. I taught a learn-to-learn seminar to these urban youth: most had been unsuccessful in high school, but in this beautifully bifurcated program of job prep and internship and college coursework almost all of them found their groove to genuinely becoming lifelong learners. I continue to teach at the college and believe in the mission and values that form the cornerstone of the institution. I have enjoyed teaching and learning with students from across the globe. So far I have been privileged to learn with and about fellow learners from England, Scotland, Sweden, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Barbados, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Russia, Cambodia, Taiwan, Korea, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In 2007, I made my next leap: I joined the faculty of a small elementary school at the computer technology teacher. Relentless as a terrier, I have worked hard as an evangelist and story-teller, advancing the ideas that technology is not a subject to be taught in isolation but a tool to be employed across the curriculum. Working with my K-6 learners has had an additional benefit: a renewed excitement about practicing wide-eyed wonder in daily life. While I continue to love working with these children, I am hoping to obtain a position as a high school English teacher, a boyhood goal that remains deferred.
My wife and son keep me centered and ever focused on being the best I can while recognizing who I am. I hope each visitor to my blog finds some little something to make them the curious, inquisitive person they already are.
