Solving real problems with joy and creativity

Last week, I visited my friend and former colleague’s preschool in a bucolic suburb of Pittsburgh with wide open green spaces. Natural beauty and dozens of rain-suited toddlers and preschoolers surrounded us. A group of these children was playing in a creek bed with buckets and shovels. Another group, more scattered, was working in the mud kitchen. It had rained earlier that morning, and the conditions were splishy splashy, to use a technical term. Jessie Handron, the director of the school, and her team of educators have created something almost too magical to put into words.

You can feel the joy oozing from this place. And while my words want to land on the beautiful artwork we saw, or the soothing classrooms, or this incredible outdoor environment, I think it might be bigger than all of that. It’s the feeling of being in a place where joy and creativity matter, almost more than anything. We often frame our TCP approach within the lanes of environment, materials, practice, and mindset. So today, I want to share about creative problem-solving in education. What happens when we make small shifts in environment, materials, and practice? With a mindset that play is essential and that children are capable, the results are joyful, nurturing experiences for all of us.