They say that if you attend a conference and learn one new thing, that is a success. By that measure, the conference I am attending in Canada is a stunning success. Here are just two things I have learned (and the conference isn’t over). First, here’s a quote placed on screen by the keynote speaker, Todd Hirsch, an economist. It’s from Hugh MacLeod. “Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, ‘I’d like my crayons back, please.” Ah, how accurate and I also think we need to help people color outside the proverbial lines. Recognizing creativity is a psychological advantage.

Next, there was reference, in the same address, about spiders in space and how they adapted to zero gravity — which they had not experienced before. And yes, they constructed webs, albeit in a new way. They webs don’t look like the gravity-based webs on earth but they are remarkable still. Think about that power that rests in us all — the capacity to adapt.

And, given both the need for (and presence of) creativity and the capacity to adapt that are within us all, why can’t we approach change more positively in education and beyond. The worst thing that I hear in education and elsewhere: this is how we have always done it. A wee yipes.