USDAN MUSING:
THANK YOU, SIR KEN

Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.
- Ken Robinson, 1950-2020

Dear Usdan Community, 

This week, one of the greatest people to have influenced my perspective on children and on education passed away. He was Ken Robinson. Through his publications and his status as the most viewed speaker in TED history, Ken, actually Sir Ken, relentlessly advocated for creative education. He believed, as I now do too, that keeping creativity alive in our children is not only a key to their future happiness, but is actually the key to the future of humanity, allowing us to navigate through current and upcoming crises. 

Ken was enormously beloved not only for his message, but for how he shared it with jolly humor and compelling charm. About a year ago, I had perhaps the greatest fangirl moment of my life when I spoke in person with Ken after his keynote speech at the American Camp Association NY/NJ annual conference. My heart raced the entire time. 

Reconnecting with Ken’s message feels urgent right now. With our schools barely able to include meaningful arts experiences in their 2020-21 curriculum, with the creative industries in America having lost nearly 3 million jobs and over $150 billion in sales due to the pandemic*, structures promoting creativity in our children and in ourselves are disappearing. Whether we are educators, parents, caregivers, or community members, all of us who believe in the value of creativity need to do whatever we can in this moment to keep it thriving in our children and in ourselves.

It’s a ripe time to reconnect with Sir Ken for inspiration. If you have not yet, I hope you will commit this week and in the year ahead to learning or re-learning from him. Let’s use his work to think of creative opportunities for our children in the months ahead. Usdan will run Usdan Online this fall and kick off some other ways to advance creativity. What else can we do during this urgent moment? What can you do? As always, please reply and share your ideas.

For Watching: Ken Robinson’s TED Talks

For Reading: Ken Robinson’s Website

Lauren Brandt Schloss, Executive Director

*“Lost Art: Measuring Covid-19’s devastating impact on America’s creative economy,” by the Brookings Institution estimates losses for industries such as film, advertising, and fashion as well as creative occupations such as musicians, artists, performers, and designers.  

Usdan Executive Director Lauren Brandt Schloss, former Usdan Director of Marketing and Communications Kathleen Drohan, Lady Thérèse Robinson, and Sir Ken Robinson at the March 2019 American Camp Association NY/NJ Tristate Conference.

USDAN HAPPY HOURS

If you have not yet, please see below a recording of Usdan Happy Hours - a virtual event held on August 19 in celebration of the young artists who participated in Usdan Online this summer. 

2020 SPECIAL EDITION T-SHIRT

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