Caine's Arcade Five Years On - Still Inspiring Creativity
Remember Caine's Arcade? It is a little bit odd to write about the legacy of a 9 year old, but what he started continues today and is spreading creativity, entrepreneurship and empathy all over the world.
After his video went viral, $240,000 was raised for Caine's Scholarship fund and the Imagination Foundation. Off the back of their hugely successful Cardboard Challenge, the foundation has been encouraging educators to set up Imagination Chapters. These are 'pop-up learning spaces that foster creativity, entrepreneurship and 21st century skills through Creative Play.' This is what the Imagination Foundation hope will happen at their chapters:
The enthusiastic take up of the Cardboard Challenge shows how much enthusiasm children and educators have for this kind of learning. These are skills and values parents and teachers really care about. It is especially refreshing to see 'collaboration' listed and not 'competition'.
The only Imagination Chapter so far established in the UK is the Hatch and Tinker club in Manchester; there is surely demand for more? If you're interested in establishing one, please get in touch; I would love to collaborate. Maybe we could start with a Cardboard Challenge event? If you're not yet convinced, search #cardboardchallenge on Twitter, it is a riot of cardboard boxes! Cardboard challenges seem to be happening every day, that's astonishing for something that was launched back in 2014!
As a Sustainability Educator I definitely share the goals of the Imagination Foundation and there is already an alignment with the ecological values of Earth Day to build on. But the central plank to build any Chapter around is creativity. It is core to what the Imagination Foundation are trying to do and it is what employers and CEOs are craving.
Finally, we should not limit this to Primary and Pre-School; creativity wanes over time. We need to remember to develop it and nurture it beyond key stage 2. Here's an example of what older cardboard challenger's are making, beautiful hey?:
