Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink is one of those books that I want to share with everyone! HIs premise is that due to outsourcing and our material abundance that students of the 21st century will need different skills, like creativity, design, play, empathy, etc.  and that the world looks to the U.S.  for that “outside of the box” thinking.  

He really builds a convincing case for the importance of design and creativity in the future.   What convinced me was his description of the Michael Graves’ designed toilet brush at Target and how consumers, since we have so many “things,”  are now buying designer items for even the simplest of tools.

   Need a fancy toiletbrush?

The second part of the book gives lots of specific, playful exercises to help develop those abilities and has a lot of applications for the classroom, I think.    My mind was racing thinking of all the ways we could use these ideas. It’s also very readable which is a plus!