Raccoons, Creativity and School Assemblies

Last week we had an adventure, of sorts, here in our office. We began to hear strange noises emanating from an interior wall in the back room where we store unused equipment from our school assemblies. Hmmm.

Pressing my ear against the wall I heard strange “chirpings” and “squeakings” inside. A thump against the wall seemed to silence them, but confirmed that some animal was inside. In my ignorance of such things I assumed a squirrel had somehow gotten into the building and had become trapped. 

Well after a day or two an odor began to permeate the back room. Further inspection in a drop ceiling area led us to discover a nest with four cute little baby raccoons. The mother, thankfully, was nowhere to be seen. We carefully removed the small creatures in the old computer box in which they were nestled and took the box outside. Shortly thereafter we discovered that they were gone, after, apparently, the mother had returned to claim them and carried them away to some safer location. The clean up was nasty. Still, they were very cute. Sadly, we neglected to take pictures so I am showing a file photo of babies.

This was brought back to me this morning, listening to an interview with an ultra creative musical artist by the name of Warren DeFever. 

http://www.wdetfm.org/article/his-name-is-alive-celebrates-20-years

Mr. DeFever is a native of Michigan, and leader of a group called His Name is Alive. (http://www.hisnameisalive.com/ ) He has, since the age of five, been tinkering with including natural sounds into music. One piece of his music is used on American Idol sometimes. He is a very creative musician and produces some incredible music. He told a story about discovering baby raccoons in an abandoned fireplace years ago, and, after rescuing them, placing a device which created a sound like a heartbeat into their bed with them. The previously weak babies gravitated toward the device and it’s warm sound helped revive them. He was not only able to nurse them to health, but he also recorded the sounds they made, in conjunction with the heartbeat sound and this became the basis for a piece of music. Very clever. The sounds they made were identical to the “chirping” I had heard in our wall last week!

What is all of this about?

Admittedly, this is a long way to go, but it reminded me of an important belief of mine. That is creativity is the real spark that has propelled the United States into a position of power and success in this world. What they used to call “Yankee Ingenuity”. The ability to think outside the box and create novel solutions to problems, or new inventions, or just great story lines that in turn create the wonderful movies for which America is noted.

School is where we must foster this creativity and problem solving. Alas, the current “business is business” mindset that encourages non stop “teaching to the test” around only Reading and Math works against such creativity. A rich curriculum presenting students with a wealth of different ideas, influences and experiences is the best environment in which to nurture the growth of creativity.

And so, whenever I hear, as I do every day, school representatives talking about not being able to take “time off task” for a school assembly or a science show, or a portable planetarium or a visit from Ben Franklin, I always have to stop myself from screaming. Education is about the whole picture, not just Reading and Math. We must teach our kids to think, solve problems and create. School assemblies provide an essential tool in that formula.

So, if you find a raccoon nesting in your wall, take a moment to marvel at natures ability to solve problems, like finding a warm, safe place to sleep. And remember that kids are not born with this skill. It must be taught and nurtured.

And here endeth today's lesson!