I’ve noticed a slew of advertisements recently, both on-line and on late night television (and herein lies a clue, future detectives, to my sleeping habits) for various training opportunities in law enforcement, national security, and various jobs for dealing with criminals and incarceration. Here is an email I just received a few moments ago:

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I recently sat in on a meeting of a group of pre-K through second grade teachers planning their school's Halloween celebration.They were charged with coming up with Halloween games for the event. One of the teachers provided the succint suggestion: " Take a traditional game, like bowling or bean bag toss, and put a ghost on it." This seemed to me to be a wise, efficient, and sufficiently scary recommendation for a holiday that calls for just the right balance between terror and delight.

Every year, at Easter time, I buy a new box of yellow "Peeps" (marshmallow candy chicks) as a kind of ready-made art installation that I keep on my living room coffee table. They look comfortable and attractive and synthetic in their neat little rows, sealed beneath the cellophane. I keep them in the box.

We want to feed between 500 to 1,000 teens on Thanksgiving Day!

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More and more, we are hearing calls for a more creative workforce activated by, as the business writer Daniel H. Pink calls it, "a whole new mind". The idea seems to be that in an information economy, developing creative and critical thinking skills is becoming increasingly necessary for our citizenry in order to effectively adapt to an ever-changing workplace and a radically fluctuating economy. If this is indeed true (and I believe that it is), our education systems must actively support learners in becoming increasing flexible, collaborative, and innovative.