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CEF YouthWise in South Africa
Educators return to Africa to help others tap creativity
By JOHN T. EBERTH, The Times Herald
Olean, New York
September 22, 2005
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 | Photo submitted — Tom Potter (right with pen) leads a discussion in creative problem solving at the Paul Roos Academy Boys School in South Africa. | |
Joette Field, Tom Potter and John Frederick are missionaries of the mind.
The three career educators traveled to South Africa Wednesday to help rural teachers and students enhance their creative abilities. They’re developing a curriculum for the schools designed to teach creative problem solving in all aspects of day-to-day life.
Mr. Frederick said the goal is to teach kids and their teachers techniques that will allow them to tap into their creative power at will. The trio of educators are part of the Creative Education Foundation’s CEF YouthWise in South Africa program. They’re hoping to teach young people creative problem solving techniques they can then use to better their own communities.
Mr. Potter is the administrative partner for the Parent Education Program in Olean. Ms. Field teaches creativity at the Williamsville School District. She’s also curriculum coordinator for CEF YouthWise South Africa. Mr. Frederick is executive director of executive leadership and change at Daemen College in Amherst.
The CEF YouthWise South Africa team has been visiting South Africa since 2003 to develop the program.
Mr. Potter said the hope is that graduates of the program will teach others creative problem solving. Mr. Potter said those who have learned to tap into their well of creativity will help solve some of the problems confronting their home communities.
“The goal is sustainability so they can break through the cycle of poverty,” Mr. Potter said of the program.
The task is daunting. All of the students are poor. They speak 13 different languages but most have English as a second language. The kids live in shanty towns in the country. Whole families of 10 or more share a single room. They don’t have running water and electricity is often provided by an extension cord. Many of the students’ parents work for South African wineries, picking grapes.
Ms. Field said because they get wine for free, parents often leave a jug of wine with their children in the morning as they go to work. It may be the only food they have for the day. The wine keeps them alive and it also helps keep the kids quiet until their parents return. Children are often injured and killed in farming accidents and many have AIDS.
Mr. Potter has been part of CEF YouthWise South Africa from the beginning. He said last year some of his students from 2003 didn’t return.
“There were kids in one group of seventh- and eighth-graders who had AIDS,” he said. “Maybe some of them aren’t coming back because they’re dead.”
Classes are taught at the prestigious Paul Roos Academy Boys School in South Africa. Mr. Potter said the teachers and students he’s met have embraced the program.
“They are amazing human beings who are totally enthusiastic and committed,” he said.
Many people believe creativity is an innate ability some have and some don’t.
Ms. Field said creativity isn’t magic, it’s a way of thinking that can actually be taught. She noted that many of the most creative people throughout history have been described as sometimes mercurial or eccentric.
“Creativity got a bad name,” she said. “People think it’s a free-for-all. It isn’t, it’s an unlocking.”
Once harnessed, she said, creativity helps people solve complex problems in innovative ways.
To learn more about CEF YouthWise and the Creative Education Foundation, visit www.creativeeducationfoundation.org.
Reprinted with permission of The Times Herald. ©2005 Bradford Publishing.
