It’s the robotics time of year at LAAS.  We traveled four hours one-way yesterday to officially “Kick-off” the season, and it was so worth it!  I love to watch the kids brainstorm ways to build a robot that can complete all the tasks.  

   In a day and age when Hollywood’s only move seems to be remaking the classics, innovation may seem hard to find.  The definition, after all, is “a new method, idea, product, etc.”  I teach in AP Lit that there are no new stories.... only variations on common themes.  What a party pooper, eh?!  I do go on to tout the wonderful nature of variations.  

   As I watched my students tackle the game challenge (to make a robot replace the fallen electrical wires in a simulated after-catastrophe scenario), I was amazed at the new ideas I heard.  After all, I’ve been coaching robotics for fifteen years now.  There are only so many variations on a robot with four motors and four servos.  But these kids haven’t heard or seen any of those ideas.  They’re just trying to solve an issue.  And, boy,  they are!

    Being an innovator requires that one knows how to create.  At our school, we require that every student in elementary sing, act, play an instrument, and participate in art (not crafts… real art).  In secondary, we let the kids choose in which fine arts they will get their credits, not limiting them to just one or two.  The reason?  If one teaches a child all the facts in the world, but the child cannot create, that child is useless for anything but Jeopardy!  Employers what to hire people who can create… create opportunities, create new products or new methods to serve customers, create revenue.  Innovation is an absolute necessity!!

    I think a prerequisite to being an innovator is being a “fixer.”  Are you a “fixer?”  I am.  So are my mother and my daughter.  We have to tell each other not to solve when we’re communicating with each other!  I think the fact that we are all fixers is part of the reason our school has so many innovations in education.  My mother has been an innovator from the get-go.  The school in which she spent her first thirty years as a superintendent, principal, and teacher was a model school for Oklahoma.  She did workshops all over the United States on brain research and how it alters instructional needs, and many people have credited her with revolutionizing the way they taught.  

    We have continued innovating at our private school.  Every day as needs arise, our faculty and owners create solutions that solve.  And we are instilling this same ability in our students.  

    Parents of gifted children, I encourage you to teach your children to innovate.  It’s not enough to just create with Legos and erector sets.  Give your children the ability to solve real-world problems.  Can’t come up with any of those?  Just look online for competition possibilities.  Companies are constantly looking for new ideas, and children are a great source of uninhibited innovation.  Your child can win cool prizes, and companies will make better products because of the innovation of our youth.

    Shoot, just learning to work with your gifted child requires that you be an innovator, too!  I challenge you this week to make some family time for innovating… even if that innovation is just building a big fort with the living room cushions, pillows, and throws!  Every innovation creates a new synapse in the brain.  You and your family have nothing to lose and so much to gain!  Happy creating!

                    Michelle