"Thinking-outside-the-Box" Why is there a box?

A box, a container, a pen to corral, a keep sake, a presentation device. They can be small to encase jewelry, shoes, or even school supplies. They can be large like a sand box or shipping container. No matter the size or design all boxes have one thing in common: to restrain or isolate. They are not places to thrive and express, and share ideas. Rather a place to protect and covet. This is why I have never understood the saying "Think-outside-the-box."

If you want students and teachers to be creative and autonomous then do not put them in a box in the first place. The standards and required information focuses us on certain topics yes, but that should never force us into a box either. Stifling creativity by putting someone in a box and then saying just be innovative and think-outside-the-box is counter intuitive. It is a way for the powers at be to control.

Like on Christmas morning, tear open the box to see what is inside and toss the broken, torn pieces into the fire. Lose the lid, like so many Tupperware. The only box-like design a teacher or student needs to be associated with is the classroom. Those four walls, ceiling and floor, although a sound structure, are merely the facade that an engaging, authentic, active, learning environment is housed. They are forever present, but the journey only begins there.

A great teacher, inspires, inquires, celebrates, and encourages the journey outside the boundaries of the theater of academics. Students are set loose to design the stage, paint the set, write the stage direction, create the props and costumes, even compose the score or soundtrack. They are the actors, directors, and stage crew. Teachers the audience, where the drama of learning unfolds. We are front and center when the curtain is drawn and the orchestra plays the first note. We experience the play from a different perspective so we can see it as a whole performance.

A box is confining and isolating narrowing creativity and innovation. Therefore, we need to demolish the box. The classroom is not a box but a theater, the program the lessons and units, each an act in a play. The standards the scenes. The problem-solving and inquiry the dialogue. The makerspace, or supplies the props in which the students or actors share their performances with the audience. This amphitheater however, has not critics ready to judge or critique merely an audience that applauds, gasps, and laughs in all the right places. An audience that enjoys the collaboration and suspense. That will buy a ticket to every performance because they notice the stage is the same but the actors and script change and improve over time.

A box is great to ship items or store our cherished keepsakes. They are NOT metaphorically speaking a good place in which to place students for they will block true vision and clarity. Tear down the walls that separate us. Instead let students take center stage, under the spot light. Be the stars of their own learning, shout their voices to the rafters and hear the applause that guides them to the next performance.