Monday Motivation Putting it into Overdrive

Should be a Random Thoughts and I am not talking about my work week for a bit.

Yesterday I awoke to the news of the shooting at the Pulse in Orlando. This morning I finally heard from the last few people I was worried might have been there. Turns out one person was there but she got out safely when the shoot started as did the rest of the people who had been there with her. I will see her at DragonCon and give her a big ol’ hug.

Then I got a news alert about the police finding a man with a car full of guns and explosives that was ready to reek havoc at the LA Gay Pride parade. He was stopped before anything happened. I really hope they toss him into jail and throw away the key.

James Corden spoke about Orlando before the Tony Awards and expressed our solidarity to stand with the people who were affected by this senseless act. We then watched Hamilton clean up at the Tony Awards.

I noticed that a number of people who won awards talked about how what they did in school had led them where they were standing that day.

Arts Education is taking a big hit these days. Many schools are dropping art and music programs because of budget cuts.

This is a crying shame because one thing that is valued about America is our ingenuity and creativity. We are world renowned for thinking outside the box. But we are turning our schools into places where we are putting our kids into boxes. They are praised for the right answer but not for questioning why it is the right answer. They call it teaching for the test and it is killing our children’s creativity. They need to explore the ‘what ifs’ and ‘what might happen’.

We have raised a generation of children with No child left behind and created a group that tests well but that’s about it. Children are not the same. There is no magic formula that works with all children. Each is different and learns in different ways.

Let them be creative. Let them write stories about impossible things. Let them get their hands dirty with paint and clay. Let them learn the universal language of music that will allow them to communicate their music with anyone else who can read music. Let them try and fail and try again to see what they can discover.

Creativity is one of our greatest assets. Let’s not stifle it with tests to prove they can all do the same thing at the same time.

Now onto me and my creativity.

Over all my output was down a bit. Word wise it was mostly this web log.

Puppet wise, it was planning and panicking and then planning some more.

I figure 24 puppets need to be built between now and DragonCon. I am also losing a couple of weekends and a week in there for SDCC which will turn into two weeks when all is said and done.

I am starting with 7 puppets. Aquaman (Haven’t forgotten Martin) needs his clothes and I have six heads and bodies cut out of foam along with the mouths done. I will finish these six and move onto the next set of 6 by next week. If I can keep that up, I will have a majority of what I need done by Shoreleave.

Now that’s only if I don’t get any curveballs.

I do know that I have to finish Caroline’s Rey costume before SDCC and she wants to work on a large and impressive costume for DragonCon that I hope we can pull off.

I want to test drive my DragonCon puppet slam piece at Shoreleave if I can get it done.

So there it is. My master plan. Now let’s see how much I can get done.

I am grateful to everyone who teaches the arts to our children.