Natural Acceleration: Supporting Creative Trajectories

Natural acceleration happens through an internal fire that burns to learn and may transcend school boundaries. Based on their passionate interests and connections with a domain, children who hunger for domain understandings outside school curricula require different types of acceleration, motivated by these interests. The lifeworks, domains, and interests of two eminent Brazilian brothers, Walter and Roberto Burle Marx, represent different creative trajectories. Examining childhood experiences that helped them accomplish their endeavors finds major differences in their early education. Both boys reported that their real education was through pursuit of their passions wherein they hungered for expertise, not through school. Though acceleration in school subjects certainly benefits some students, careful observation and honoring of young children's passions allows natural acceleration steered by the student, rather than school personnel, which may lead to greater possibilities of attaining high levels of creativity.