I gave a speech in Uganda in 2004 where I first said that “children need education like a dam needs water in which to channel its energy” Children also require love, health, peace, and the freedom to be creative. Sara Gable of University of Missouri State Extension said that creativity is not a product you create but a process you live. Our guest, Dr. Olga Zbarskaya life’s work includes teaching creative thinking as “one of the most complex and comprehensive, conceptual and practical, qualitative and quantitative phenomena”. Dr. Zbarskaya trains licensed professionals in NYC on creative education, learning through self-perception and self-determination, stimulating young children’s creative potentials, fostering a sense of self, motivation, incubation of ideas, and complex approaches toward reality. Olga emphasized that “creativity promotes intellectual growth and cognitive development in children and decreases accumulated aggressive or destructive tendencies and urges”.
Dr. Olga Zbarskaya, Ph.D, ACSW, MSW, MA is a SUNY Certified & New York State Accredited Trainer. She is the Senior Administrative Director of Early Learn at Cardinal McCloskey Community Services. She describes herself as a simple individual with diverse interests and hobbies. Olga was born in Odessa, Ukraine. She lives in America since 1996. Her mom is a microbiologist and her dad is an inventor in a shipbuilding industry.
Each of us was born with a sense of wonder, a curiosity about the world we found ourselves in. If we had an opportunity to draw on the walls, bang pots and pans together, peek around the corner or take a toy or thing apart to see what made it work, made us each a creative person. What is the most creative word a small child says to expand his/her understanding? It is just one word: “WHY”?
Dr. Zbarskaya’s question “WHY “pertaining to the creative approach towards education initially was asked in Ukraine in 1993. As a postgraduate student, she offered Odessa institute of teachers, the new creative curriculum for elementary education based on cultural self-determination of young children. For more than 15 years, she trains MYC trainers, teachers, child care providers, and administrators. She presents at various conferences, lectures, writes poetry, stages shows, and serves as a constant to various agencies. Olga staged her poetry shows in the United Nations and other settings.
If you ever wondered how to invent things and think differently… If you ever day-dreamed or turned an empty cardboard carton into a clubhouse, drew on walls at home, made a mess with arts and crafts materials, this is the first of two shows with Dr. Olga Zbarskaya you do not want to miss.