There are endless opportunities in schools right now, but outdated resources prevent teachers from promoting creativity, the founder of No Right Brain Left Behind told MSNBC.
“To us it doesn’t make sense that the future, the human potential, is being developed under these circumstances, a 19th-century model,” Viktor Venson told MSNBC.
No Right Brain Left Behind aims to redesign the concept of the school library for the 21st-century by providing schools with physical spaces that can enhance creativity, courage, and new collaborative efforts between teachers and students.
“Starting with these creativity hubs, we hope that the successful elements of these new spaces can later inspire new ways of learning in classrooms and in the community,” he said.
Beginning in 2011, No Right Brain Left Behind gave creative industries the challenge to rethink education. Panels chose ideas submitted from hundreds of teams around the country with the ultimate goal of picking one idea to execute.
The mission is to instill innovation and creativity in education, and re-imagine the concept and experience of a library. The team provides “leaps in learning, not just steps,” Venson said.
“Education is not a place where you go to just learn. Education is a place for development of experiences. The development of your potential human being, to find your passion,” he said.
Venson works with schools in high-risk areas that are in the bottom 10%, where the main issues arise, he said. The group collaborates with Green Dot Public Schools, which is also located in Los Angeles, Calif.
“We want to provide these students with the same opportunities, same technology, same innovation that can be accessed in private schools,” he said.
In addition to rethinking the library concept, the group is building a new way for students to interface with computers and educational software.
“We have a strategy and a model to address the public education crisis in a very powerful way that’s scalable,” Venson said. “We approach education from a new lens.”
No Right Brain Left Behind was chosen as one of five finalists in the Feast contest. Each innovator has received one ticket to the 2013 Feast Conference, which focuses on learning, health, and veterans. The organization with the most votes by Oct. 6 will receive a speaker spot at the three-day conference, which begins on Oct. 16 in New York City, for the chance to call participants to action.
Like what No Right Brain Left Behind is doing? Show your support and vote here.
Michele Richinick