Get Creative, Kids

By Michael Lemonick

Over the course of our visits to the Gallaghers earlier this year, I noticed a gigantic toothbrush gradually taking shape in their living room. Finally, I just had to ask what was going on. It turned out that their son John, a seventh-grader, was putting together a skit with a group of other kids. Their short play was loosely based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, except that it was set inside a gigantic mouth, and the main characters were teeth. The theme involved not a tumultuous relationship but the invention of the electric toothbrush. Yet part of the dialogue was lifted verbatim from the Shakespearean original.

Puzzling? I thought so until I learned about the remarkable institution called Odyssey of the Mind. OM, as it's known, gives kids from kindergarten through college a chance to practice teamwork while exercising the mental muscles responsible for creativity. Founded in 1978 by two New Jersey educators who felt that imaginative problem solving was getting short shrift in schools, OM has grown to include teams from all 50 states and 41 other countries; about half a million kids now participate worldwide, competing in regional, state and national contests that culminate in the World Finals each spring.

It all starts in the fall, as each team picks a specific "problem" from a list provided by OM headquarters and sets out to solve it in an imaginative way. The problems are quirky, to say the least. One of them requires a team to put on a skit about a sales transaction that includes several elements: a "memorable customer, a demonstration of an original product that reflects some aspect of the culture in which the performance takes place, and the resolution of a problem involving the business." The kids must also present a "technical element"--a mechanical device of some sort.

Another problem calls for making a weight-bearing, balsa-wood structure that's as light as possible. The problem that John's team chose called for not only a Shakespearean flavor but also a historical event, a technical element and a humorous character. Oh, and did I mention the song, with original music and lyrics?

This combination of strict requirements and vague wording--plus a $100 limit on materials--forces kids to stretch their brains. And while each team has a coach, often a teacher or parent, that person is forbidden to give instruction. Says Arlene Cohen, 26, a math teacher who coaches John's team at Princeton Day School in Princeton, N.J.: "We're supposed to push them along but never give them solutions. Sometimes I have to leave the room to keep from blurting out advice."

Kids don't always come up with the same answers that adults would, but that's fine. Says Shawn Ford, 39, a foreign-language teacher who coaches two teams in Wisconsin's Kaukauna school district: "It's sometimes frustrating, but it's also fun to watch the kids come up with amazingly creative ideas." And thanks to the rules, credit for the final product--and for meeting the challenges of getting half a dozen or so individuals to organize themselves into a smoothly running team--goes directly to the OMers. "It really feels good," says John, "to know we did it ourselves."

To learn more, check out the OM website at www.odyssey.org Questions for Lemonick? E-mail him at TimFamily2@aol.com