If you don’t create an atmosphere in which risk can be easily taken, in which weird ideas can be floated, then it’s likely you’re going to be producing work that will look derivative in the marketplace.
– Pixar University Dean Randy Nelson.
Several years ago at a NECC conference (where, I’m guessing Atlanta), we heard a speaker tell us about giving risk opportunities to children in schools. One said she created a “garage like atmosphere,” a little factory of learning where kids could explore, create, and make mistakes.
She said it was wonderful.
The article linked above, about Pixar’s “University” that inspires its employees to maintain their creativity, sounds like what a good K-12 environment should be like.