Over the last few days, Longbow and Swan conducted a series of interviews with teachers from the U.S. as well as Scandinavia and the U.K.. Working at all levels of education, we sincerely thank these teachers who volunteered their time and insights to the ongoing development of our work. We hope that their experiences will offer valuable insights to the other teams who are currently putting together their proposals. We're therefore very pleased to share our findings.

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Interview with Teachers
As part of its research for the No Right Brain Left Behind Challenge, Longbow and Swan conducted a
series of interviews with teachers from across the U.S. as well as Scandinavia and the U.K.
The group of interviewees consisted of two current teachers of first graders in New York City, an
elementary school teacher who has worked in Indiana and London, a recently retired high school teacher
who taught in California, a professor who currently teaches writing at a private university in New York
City, an art school teacher in Oslo, as well as an adjunct professor of design in Copenhagen.
All of the teachers were briefed on the No Right Brain Left Behind Challenge. As such, they were
introduced to the premise that the U.S. educational system currently does not produce enough creative
thinkers and were asked to consider their responses in light of this creativity crisis.
QUESTIONS
(1) If you could change one thing about the educational system in the U.S., what would that be? It
can be anything, from something philosophical to something very concrete.
"In my decade as a teacher, primarily of first-year college students, I have seen creativity plummet, and I
believe that it is because test-taking drills/strategies have taken the place of real, open-ended
thinking, projects that begin without knowing where they will end. Even the thesis-driven five-paragraph
essay assumes a truth that it then "proves," without exploring other options; students seek only the
evidence to support what they already believe. By the time they reach my classroom, they have no idea
how to ask meaningful questions about cultural or political issues; they are too invested in the idea of a
single right answer, and creativity simply doesn't work that way. They should have spent more time
learning through the arts, where it is judgment rather than rules that prevail."
"It's important to remember that schools are both a reflection of the community as well as a part of their
community and that this community consists not only of parents, pupils, and teachers, but also the other
residents who live and work nearby, as well as peer support programs such as Big Sister and Big
Brother. We need to have a conversation about our education that takes place across the many levels of
our community. We really need to have a dialogue about these issues where we can openly
debate what works and what doesn't work."
"Give the children more rights - let the children have a say in what they would like to learn about.
Encourage new dialogues. Collaborative learning!"
"I was trained in New York City, and then began teaching in Bloomington, Indiana. My greatest
surprise was the disparity between the world I was educated in, in New York, and the world I
taught in, in Indiana. The flexibility of my professors, their willingness to try new ideas and techniques,
and to revisit older techniques from new angles... this was absent in Indiana. If I could change one thing
about the educational system in the US, it would be to institute a National Review System to explore the
reasons that certain schools were successful and others weren't. To be able to compare an LA inner city
school with a Boston one seems elementary, but I'm afraid it isn't. I know that many fear a societal
homogenization if the state-to-state differences inherent in the US are broken down, but I think in this
area we can't afford to ignore the advances, and defeats, of our neighbors."
"To be truly creative, you have to be creative about something in particular. It is the development
of knowledge through experience. I would therefore make sure that every student creates something

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tangible, an object, though not necessarily physical, but a finished piece of work, whether it is a self-
made book on mathematics (if that's their field), a bicycle route explained with maps and facts along the
way, a recipe - created and documented. It is important that the student's object shows their specialty,
their unique perspective, and not just a general specialty. Their object would have to be documented so
that it can be shared with others, also outside the school.... This is done, for instance, in the Steiner
schools."
"Students graduating from high school should understand practical monetary matters as an element of
teaching math. They need to know everything from how credit cards work; why we have taxes and the
services that are provided by taxes; what a mortgage is; how percentages are calculated; what income
should be allocated on living expenses, savings, etc; the cost of having, providing for, and educating a
child; how insurance and stock markets operate; how to make a budget; how banks, mutual funds,
monetary funds work; we teach basic math, algebra, geometry and calculus, but we gloss over
these very pertinent economic math concepts."
"Focus more on individualism versus group exercises. What can you share of your own experience and
what can one learn from the others?"
"Everyone should understand what programming is. Now, you don't need to know how to build a car in
order to drive a car, but you do need to know how to DRIVE a car, otherwise you are just a passenger.
The same applies for programming."
If you could change more than that?
"I think that more interdisciplinary work needs to be done at the high school level -- classes that
combine writing, researching, and discovery. The compartmentalization of these skill sets in a standard
curriculum means that students never experiment in writing, or create art or narratives about math or
science, that might yield new truths or ways of seeing the world. Students should be evaluated on their
process as much as their results, so that being "wrong" doesn't cost so much, academically. Much of the
entire school industry, from teacher training to AP testing, is invested in standard curricular divisions.
When the only carrot is a high score on a multiple choice test, kids stop imagining."
"Make technology more widely available. When I see Dr. Negroponte distributing computers in
India while the students in our own neighborhood schools wait in line at the library to have
access to one, I get a little riled. Charity should begin at home. We need to bridge the ever
widening gap between the haves and the have-nots, and it is time that our politicians realized
that poverty is not just an inner city problem. Our classrooms, especially in the area of
technology, need more parity. Put more resources into the classroom!"
"Food is a real issue in schools. Teaching students not only how to make food, but also why good food
will make them feel better, and then implementing this in the cafeterias. Perhaps most importantly:
wages. Teachers are arguably just as important to society as politicians, and serve very much
the same purpose. They should be paid accordingly, and this means increasing the allocation from
the federal government to the state level education budget - but just increasing wages would be unfair
when increasing the individual schools' allowances for infrastructural improvement is important, too."
"The days in K-12 schools are filled with ceaseless chatter, so there needs to be time each day for
working quietly. Some classes at my school have enacted silent times - and the children often request to
have it. "Let's have silent lunch!" (really!) Also, truly healthy snacks and meals and more time outside."

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"Stop all dramatic changes! Every time a new wave sweeps into our educational system, it is
accompanied by enormous waste that usually benefits the textbook companies, testing facilities, and the
ever-present specialists.... "New Math" gave way to “Back to Basics.” "One Child Left Behind" and now,
perhaps, "Race to the Top."
"Involve the community, through projects based in the community, so that pupils can better relate to the
things that they're learning. Encourage self-expression. It's only when kids form their OWN expression of
something that we can see that they've learned it - in a right brain way. Foster a sense of collaboration:
within the classroom so pupils can exercise critical thought when talking about other pupils work;
between teachers so best practices are shared; in the local community so everyone has a stake in any
successes, while failures are a shared responsibility"
"Good food, proper meals."
(2) Are school classrooms inadequately designed to cultivate creative thinking? If yes, how
would you redesign any aspect of the classroom?
"Most classrooms are inadequately designed, yes! The school in which I work views the classroom
environment as the "third teacher" and thinking about how our environments affect our children's
learning is a conversation that we return to time and again. For example, in our school 'you will not find
commercial posters and plastic furniture bought from catalogs. Instead, you will find documentation of the
learning experiences and interactions of the children, teachers and families as well as evidence of the
identity of the community where the center or school is located.' Classrooms can make subtle changes
that could do much to accommodate and inspire different ways of thinking and interacting."
"All classrooms are different as there are so many variables that have to be taken into account in the
design of a classroom set up (number of students, size of room, fire regulations, mainstreamed wheel
chair bound students, various learning activities etc.)... In California, there is plenty of room in the limited
enrollment K-3 grades, so those rooms have space and fluid desk set-ups. The higher grades are
packed, so the set up is more structured. In a room where the teacher uses project-learning techniques,
students may work in pods with lots of movement between groups. This was a hot idea a few years
ago, but parents generally dislike the group-learning concept and schools are dropping it. As far
as designing something to cultivate creative thinking: letʼs have an on-line service that will provide text
and graphics based on say, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, so that students can change the bulletin
boards at least 2x a month. There is nothing less stimulating than a boring, non-instructive bulletin board
that stays up for months on end. Weʼve all seen them. Letʼs have some creative support in this area. I
want students to take part in this activity so that they can have ownership of the room."
"There are as many different kinds of classrooms as there are schools. Any room can serve as a
classroom if it has the right supplies and the right teacher. You don't necessarily need fancy desks,
etc. Materials are more important."
"I know that the art academies in Norway suffer from this idea of open seating plans, which is not
working at all.... People feel invaded, have trouble working, and all the teachers understand them, but
administrations seem to get these ideas from... I donʼt know where. The students would rather sit in a
small box, and then they could choose when to be open and when not to. In the new art academy in
Oslo, itʼs a very expensive disaster... So, I advocate freedom within a frame - solo, double, small
group, large group by organic choice or project necessity instead of a forced idea of openness
which makes everyone more protective, like they would behave in any other public space."

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(3) When a class fails to deliver on its potential, what are the range of reasons why?
"Potential is one thing. Confidence, motivation, goals, skills sets, full stomach, work ethic all have to be in
place for the potential of the individual student to be realized. Extended attention spans have to be
developed and this is becoming increasing difficult in a culture that values tweets and two-minute sound
bites. Teachers have to be strong, knowledgeable, supportive, prepared, motivating, creative, confident
and HARD WORKING. Peer group has to be equally motivated without too many “issues” that hold the
class back. Administration has to be supportive and actually help when problems arise. Cooperative and
supportive parents are extremely important. In the absence of stable and encouraging family members, it
is good to have a Boys and Girls Club or something like it to keep an eye on the studentsʼ after-school
activities and to provide them with support in study habits etc. Sports, dance, theater, glee clubs… All
those wonderful after school activities are really important for building confidence,
sportsmanship, creativity, self- expression, etc. Good communication among all the above is
essential and so easy in this time of the computer."
"There are millions of reasons why a class could fail to deliver. The teacher is ultimately responsible, but
the teacher can also be working against forces far more powerful than themselves."
"More often than not, an areas' wealth dictates the quality of its school. That said, sometimes a teacher
can have a massive positive effect, and sometimes a certain neighborhood looks very unpromising but
has a great school."
(4) What is the most undervalued resource of the U.S. educational system?
"The Truly Dedicated Teacher."
"Good and engaged teachers."
"Time for an empty head(space) in a room of limited distractions. More than two hours, less than five. An
empty head, with less choice, is more likely to be creative."
"The power of quality art education. Art education is not about creating the next Picasso, but
granting children the opportunities they deserve - to build confidence, to make connections, and
to think flexibly."
"I don't want to blow my own horn, but... well... yes I do. I introduced a program that combined
natural sciences and literature, using examples of metaphor use in description of nature. It
worked very well. I think that breaking down the barriers between the subjects can really free up the
minds of the students. When they discover how interrelated everything is, they soon realize their own
role within society - it is a lot easier for them to understand."
(6) Last question. To better understand how to cultivate more creative thinkers, is there a
question that we should be asking?
"What positive effect do you get when children are trained to think creatively?"

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One of our interviewees shared these insights from Elliot Eisner's 10 Lessons the Arts Teach:
1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the
curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that
prevail.
2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have
more than one answer.
3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see
and interpret the world.
4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving, purposes are seldom fixed, but
change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to
surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can
know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.
7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means
through which images become real.
8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a
work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the
job.
9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such
experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.
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Thanks to all of the teachers who have contributed to this brief.
This brief was researched, compiled and edited by Christian Svanes Kolding and Ewan Adams.