I’ve been travelling and retreating and wanna write you a good old-fashioned letter to catch up. Pretend this is handwriting on that stuff called paper.
Sometimes people think my job is super left-brained because it’s MATH after all and because I’m all obsessed with systems and results. But Math For Keeps has filled my creative well in ways that equal my music and more “artsy” endeavors. And it’s no surprise when I think about it, which I did– a lot–these last few weeks.
First, think about this: Off the top of your head, who do you think of when you think of mathematicians? People like Einstein, Galileo and Newton come to my mind. They were each famous for ground-breaking thinking. They thought of things that had never been thought of before, IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANITY. They had to think SO FAR outside the box to be able to come up with the things they were coming up with…That’s pretty darn creative.
And learning… learning is one of THE most creative things you can possibly do as a human. You are literally creating new neural pathways in your brain when you learn something new.
Which brings me to INSPIRATION… a key ingredient to creativity. One the things that has inspired me most consistently in life, over and over without fail, is witnessing a human go from not being able to do something to…(bibbity bobbity boo)… being able to do it. HOW FREAKING AMAZING IS THAT??? It’s pretty much a miracle. I love to watch it in my students, and I love to watch it in myself. I’m almost always learning something new, and it is from these experiences that the Math For Keeps method was born, and continues to improve.
It’s the bibbity bobbity boo part that most intrigues and inspires me. Let’s call that part the process or the journey in your brain from the time something is introduced do you to the time you can do it fluently. Tune in next week to learn the three things I’ve noticed about that journey as it relates to my 2 of my favorite subjects: math and music!