I visited the RISD Parents’ Council meeting today — it was President Mandle’s last Council that he gracefully handed off to me. We all engaged in a spirited discussion about how an education in arts and design leads to an extremely creative mind — something that is desperately needed in leadership worldwide today.

The paradox we all are presented with is that if you just teach students how to be prepared for the “real world,” then they are only ready for a specific trade — their knowledge will only last a few years. Whereas if you teach students how to think in the future world that they will make themselves, then their knowledge can last indefinitely. The latter approach is certainly preferable; yet at the same time some of the former must be mixed in for practicality’s purposes. Finding the right mixture is the key …