Raising the Next Steve Jobs

The world marked last week’s death of Apple’s Steve Jobs with sadness and gratitude for all the amazing technology he helped create that we use today. This week two eastside teachers, who are also parents, offer some tips on how we can enhance our children’s creativity, communication, team work and problem solving skills and perhaps raise the next Steve Jobs.

Meagan Buckmaster Ross is an art instructor with an early childhood education background. She teaches art at the in Redmond. She is also the mother of four children ranging in age from six to 16 and a certified doula.

Buckmaster Ross says, “The sensory art studio classes at the Orange Blossom Society support the development of creativity and problem solving skills by having an environment that gives your child many ways to experiment and explore in class. Research has shown that experiences with new kinds of activity or stimulation can generate growth in the brain within only a few hours after the experiences begin.” 

Buckmaster Ross gives her students choices and encourages them to explore the materials themselves.

“Creativity is developed with open ended activities. A child is given a paint brush, a potato masher and a car, all of which are used to paint with. He or she is experimenting and exploring new ways to paint with all materials," said Buckmaster Ross. "Given a chance to see which one may work the best, what texture do they make, how does it look on paper with blue and yellow paint, or red and yellow paint. Or they just want to paint their feet or hands and see what it may make. This is the choice at a sensory class, materials out that they can use the way they want to make a masterpiece their way. It helps with confidence, creativity and problem solving skills.”

Buckmaster Ross’s classes can be started at as young as 12 months old, when she says development of the five sense is very important. 

“Pools of split peas or other materials such as rice or flax seed to pour into different containers to hear the different sounds, feel the bumpy or smooth texture, measure out into different bowls and cups. This is generating visual, listening skills, math skills and sense of touch.”

Buckmaster Ross says of raising her own children, “I had many types of materials for them to do art with. I wasn't afraid to make a mess at home. We went on 'adventures,' packed food and clothes and sand toys and got in the car and had no plan and just drove somewhere. When we got there I would make time and just let them explore their surroundings thoroughly.”

She recalls smiling that recently her 16-year-old daughter asked when they were going to go on another adventure.

You don’t have to have expensive toys to build brains says Buckmaster Ross.

“You can use simple household items to have your own sensory bin. Flour, cornmeal, rice, homemade salt dough or play dough played with in a large bowl or wash basin.”

But she admits many parents like coming to the Orange Blossom Society for her classes because there their kid can make a big mess and the parent doesn’t have to clean it up. Parents and kids also get to connect and build social skills.

“The advantage is the atmosphere of the Orange Blossom Society in general there is a feeling of community, belonging and a safe nurturing place to be. The parents and children alike form bonds. Children gain social skills and practice team building activities through completing group art projects together.”

Problem solving skills, creativity, communication and team building are also what Jeff Mason, a teacher at , is developing in his technology students.

Mason has a B.S. in Physics and a M.Ed. in Technology Education. He has taught various science and technology courses at Newport High School for the last 18 years. Currently he is teaching Cisco Networking Academy courses. He was one of the first 10 instructors worldwide to be qualified as a Cisco Certified Instructor Trainer. Newport is the only high school academy in the nation to teach all levels of Cisco Networking, including CCNA, CCNP and CCSP courses.

Mason says parents who want to raise kids with the levels of intelligence, creativity and problem solving skills his students have need to “from the youngest possible age encourage kids to be creative."

Mason recalls his parents allowing him as a child to find and fix broken items from the local junkyard. He says there is great value in allowing kids to “take stuff apart and see how it works.”

He had his three year old recently observing him changing his oil, telling him what he was doing as he did it and proudly shares that in his house, his kids already know how to change batteries.

Mason’s students work toward earning an industry certification in networking that can translate to an entry level job in technology that he says pays up to $55,000 a year. The program is open to any high school age student, including those going to private school or being homeschooled, who live within the boundaries of the Washington Network for Innovative Careers Consortium (WaNIC) school district members including , , Mercer Island, Northshore, Riverview and Snoqualmie. 

Mason says he is building his student's communication and technology skills and he works on getting them to “think outside the box” by throwing them “many curve balls every day."

Communication is a key skill. “To succeed in technology you have to have the ability to communicate and work in a group,” Mason said. He values creativity as well. “I see students who have taken high levels of math and science but when I ask them to take a concept and apply it, they lack the creativity to do that.”

To promote creative problem solving and real-life job skills Mason has partnered with the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club to have Newport Cisco students design and build computer labs all over the world. The service projects are student led and Mason says, “they have eight hours to walk into an empty room and connect it to the Internet.”   

Parents and students can learn more about the program by going to the Newport Networking Academy’s website and by visiting the WaNIC website.

Mason says that the 104 openings for nine to twelfth graders for next year’s program will be accepted February 1, 2012, first come, first serve and that understandably “they fill up fast."