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The New Smart: How Nurturing Creativity Will Help Children Thrive
Who will thrive in the year 2050? The New Smart is a riveting study of the kinds of minds that will succeed in the 21st century. As it turns out, the key ingredient for all aspects of life is not traditional IQ but creativity. In Dr. Terry Roberts’ newest book he presents readers with a 21st century exploration into intelligence and creativity. The New Smart argues that the old notion of intelligence as a static quotient has ceased to mean much of value. Being smart, especially as it’s related to test scores and school grades, has less and less to do with success in contemporary life. Both these words and the ideas they represent are worn out. Our new age demands something much more fluid, much more resilient―much more creative. In this book, we ask who will thrive in the future? And by reframing the question, we arrive at the following profile of successful • • • • • • The New Smart asks how we re-train ourselves and educate our children for a life that demands such creativity. It provides a clear roadmap away from standardized schools producing standardized minds and describes in detail why creative is The New Smart .
224 pages, Paperback
Published November 26, 2019
About the author
Terry Roberts
48 books158 followersTerry Roberts is the author of seven celebrated novels: A Short Time to Stay Here (winner of the Willie Morris Prize for Southern Fiction and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction); That Bright Land (winner of the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award, the James Still Award for Writing About the Appalachian South and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction); and, The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival (a finalist for the 2019 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction), My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black (Finalist for the 2022 Best Paperback Original Novel by the International Thriller Writers Organization), The Sky Club (a finalist for the 2023 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award), The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape, and In the Fullness of Time (Shortlisted for Book of the Year by the Southern Literary Review).
Roberts is a lifelong teacher and educational reformer as well as an award-winning novelist. He is a native of the mountains of Western North Carolina—born and bred. His ancestors include six generations of mountain farmers, as well as the bootleggers and preachers who appear in his novels. He was raised close by his grandmother, Belva Anderson Roberts, who was born in 1888 and passed to him the magic of the past along with the grit and humor of mountain story telling.
Roberts is the Director Emeritus of the National Paideia Center and lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife, Lynn.
Roberts is a lifelong teacher and educational reformer as well as an award-winning novelist. He is a native of the mountains of Western North Carolina—born and bred. His ancestors include six generations of mountain farmers, as well as the bootleggers and preachers who appear in his novels. He was raised close by his grandmother, Belva Anderson Roberts, who was born in 1888 and passed to him the magic of the past along with the grit and humor of mountain story telling.
Roberts is the Director Emeritus of the National Paideia Center and lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife, Lynn.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 26, 2019
What will our children need for their futures, what will they need from their schooling? Dr. Terry Roberts has a visionary response to the question that is on the mind of every parent. Success will not be gained from a high test score, a high IQ score. What children will need is to be creative, to be able to adapt to new conditions, and to collaborate with others as they adjust to the changing world. And we, as the adults who care for them, will need to advocate.
March 12, 2021
Roberts contends that our traditional view of intelligence as a static number (IQ for example) is actually limiting. He examines the work of Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences and also his research into combining intelligences. Gardner’s view was that it was the combining of intelligences coupled with time that is most powerful in developing creativity. Roberts asserts that in schools “creativity” is a far greater goal rather than intelligence. It is possible for nearly everyone to exercise intensifying levels of creativity when combining ones various intelligences. Roberts asserts that schools need to encourage the development of intelligence rather than primarily seek to measure intelligence, something which happens far too often in schools.
Roberts is an engaging writer, whose book is thought-provoking. It is a very accessible read, and conceptually will likely stick with me for quite some time. Yet, I did feel the book was light in terms of original research. Roberts referred to Gardner frequently. So much so that I felt at times maybe I would have been better served to have picked up Gardner’s book instead. Had Roberts referred to other current research on creativity, his conclusions would have held more weight. Nevertheless, this book was a worthwhile read. I will certainly explore the topic further.
Roberts is an engaging writer, whose book is thought-provoking. It is a very accessible read, and conceptually will likely stick with me for quite some time. Yet, I did feel the book was light in terms of original research. Roberts referred to Gardner frequently. So much so that I felt at times maybe I would have been better served to have picked up Gardner’s book instead. Had Roberts referred to other current research on creativity, his conclusions would have held more weight. Nevertheless, this book was a worthwhile read. I will certainly explore the topic further.
reject
February 26, 2021I almost read half of this book before I ultimately decided to set it down for good. The writing was academic and mechanical. I was unimpressed by how the author presented and interpreted data. Too much was glazed over or completely unacknowledged. Sometimes broad sweeping statements were made without enough data to back them up. This book was more political than I was expecting for the topic.
On the bright side, it did make me think about education and what exactly constitutes intelligence. It was fun to hear about famous people who did poorly in school.
DNF around 46%.
On the bright side, it did make me think about education and what exactly constitutes intelligence. It was fun to hear about famous people who did poorly in school.
DNF around 46%.
November 27, 2019
As a lifelong teacher AND as a parent, I have been both moved and inspired by The New Smart: How Nurturing Creativity Will Help Children Thrive. We all want what’s best for our own children (including our nieces, nephews, grandchildren) including that they are well-prepared for adulthood. For many of us who teach, this hope also applies to the hundreds of children and adolescents who come through our classrooms. Fingers crossed, we wish for them personal happiness and professional success. The New Smart goes straight to the heart of this profound desire by examining the world in which the next generation will live out their lives and then building a portrait of what it will take to prosper in that world. Terry Roberts makes the convincing argument that what life in 2050 will require of us and our children is not traditional intelligence but creativity. He challenges us to rethink our previous definitions of success and plan for the future.
If you have children or young people in your life that you care about, you need to read this book. In particular, if you are an educator and want to be part of the movement that leads to true 21st century schools, you need to share this book with everyone you know.
If you have children or young people in your life that you care about, you need to read this book. In particular, if you are an educator and want to be part of the movement that leads to true 21st century schools, you need to share this book with everyone you know.
May 9, 2026
Though there are some truths in the book worth keeping in mind, like 'creativity is born in rehearsal and given expression in performance' and some statements already relevant to even adults right now, like, ‘By definition, the next-generation creator thinks for herself rather than having that thinking done and delivered to her via a device', nothing in this book is 'new'. Most of the book refers to studies done by others without statistics to back them, and to quotations/statements/notes from other books that I don't know why stand out in the author's mind.
While some of the ideas he's putting forth towards the end of the book seem to make sense, like
'In all of these areas of human learning, it is assumed by all concerned that practice is what leads to rigor, not native ability. And further, practice almost always assumes that the students, the workers, the athletes must fail before they can succeed. At the very least, they must suffer through the multiple drafts, the seemingly endless rehearsals, the brutal training sessions before mastering either the art of the craft.'
and 'teach resilience through multiple discussions, ongoing self-assessment, and multiple drafts or rehearsals' and 'We must nurture ambition, focus, comfort with asynchrony and marginality, resilience in the face of early failure, and a dedication to authentic productivity-in all children and adolescents.'
and 'This combination of divergent thinking with multifaceted intelligence is the reason why success in our fractured world is more a matter of profile than profession. Professions will come and go in the next 30, 40, 50 years. They are neither static nor dependable. What will not change is change itself, except that it will become more rapid and more variable.'
and 'The prodigy is often exhausted by midlife and the fire of the lyric poet burned down to cinders. The sensibility of the sage, on the other hand, grows only deeper and more sophisticated through decades of productivity-and thus is well-suited to starting over. And over.'
They are narrow, shallow and outdated, and thus contradict the author's own views on what 'the new smart' is.
All the people he talked about throughout the book, like Mahatma Gandhi, lived in different times and under different circumstances. And they are not exactly successful. Not according to different views. Yes, they might have practised hard, but they also had some ability that was given the opportunity. And they have failed, not just early, but way late into their lives. Gandhi's own death could be said to be a failure. And who said these people were not self-obsessed? And they were mostly specialists in some fields. Yes, they were probably passionate about other fields and probably even blended them together, but they needed to be experts in certain areas first, and they leaned heavily on others' shoulders to produce results that we might call their own. There are many people like them who don’t become popular or successful. And many people unlike them who turned out to do great things. And throughout the book, the author emphasized on productivity and outcomes, but then went on to say we must become sages. What exactly do sages create? They only preach.
And there is nothing in the book telling us how to nurture children so they thrive, just a lot of statements on what 'creative' is and how US schooling could do a few things differently. I don't see 'creative' in this book when thinking about what our future holds. I think that's where this book failed to make any bold leaps in the first place. But the book certainly made me think.
While some of the ideas he's putting forth towards the end of the book seem to make sense, like
'In all of these areas of human learning, it is assumed by all concerned that practice is what leads to rigor, not native ability. And further, practice almost always assumes that the students, the workers, the athletes must fail before they can succeed. At the very least, they must suffer through the multiple drafts, the seemingly endless rehearsals, the brutal training sessions before mastering either the art of the craft.'
and 'teach resilience through multiple discussions, ongoing self-assessment, and multiple drafts or rehearsals' and 'We must nurture ambition, focus, comfort with asynchrony and marginality, resilience in the face of early failure, and a dedication to authentic productivity-in all children and adolescents.'
and 'This combination of divergent thinking with multifaceted intelligence is the reason why success in our fractured world is more a matter of profile than profession. Professions will come and go in the next 30, 40, 50 years. They are neither static nor dependable. What will not change is change itself, except that it will become more rapid and more variable.'
and 'The prodigy is often exhausted by midlife and the fire of the lyric poet burned down to cinders. The sensibility of the sage, on the other hand, grows only deeper and more sophisticated through decades of productivity-and thus is well-suited to starting over. And over.'
They are narrow, shallow and outdated, and thus contradict the author's own views on what 'the new smart' is.
All the people he talked about throughout the book, like Mahatma Gandhi, lived in different times and under different circumstances. And they are not exactly successful. Not according to different views. Yes, they might have practised hard, but they also had some ability that was given the opportunity. And they have failed, not just early, but way late into their lives. Gandhi's own death could be said to be a failure. And who said these people were not self-obsessed? And they were mostly specialists in some fields. Yes, they were probably passionate about other fields and probably even blended them together, but they needed to be experts in certain areas first, and they leaned heavily on others' shoulders to produce results that we might call their own. There are many people like them who don’t become popular or successful. And many people unlike them who turned out to do great things. And throughout the book, the author emphasized on productivity and outcomes, but then went on to say we must become sages. What exactly do sages create? They only preach.
And there is nothing in the book telling us how to nurture children so they thrive, just a lot of statements on what 'creative' is and how US schooling could do a few things differently. I don't see 'creative' in this book when thinking about what our future holds. I think that's where this book failed to make any bold leaps in the first place. But the book certainly made me think.
June 13, 2020
This is what I've been trying to preach to parents and teachers for years! We are giving our children a modern education and then sending them out into a postmodern world.
"What we serve up in the middle school and high school experience is about as unimaginative as it can be."
I dock a star because this book was too brief and gave no real advice for parents and teachers who have no other options than the traditional, authoritative, and over-specialized school system.
"What we serve up in the middle school and high school experience is about as unimaginative as it can be."
I dock a star because this book was too brief and gave no real advice for parents and teachers who have no other options than the traditional, authoritative, and over-specialized school system.
May 14, 2023
Thought the book could have been a little longer more vocab for the most part great book but still feel like it could been structure a little better with more fact clinical date stats and number with more the development of the creativity to thrive like key process format in the classroom to get the kids in that mode. More the most part still was a great theory and prediction in 2050? We all should be riding on Battery operative vehicle then right...To be continue
January 9, 2025
Okay…. im not a teacher so prob not intended audience but just seemed like a rehashing of gardeners theories
plus didn’t know where he got the vision of the traits needed for the future….
but I got a good take way which is that our creativity is marked my our consistent productivity through out our lives … so guess I need to find something to do and have something to show for my life
plus didn’t know where he got the vision of the traits needed for the future….
but I got a good take way which is that our creativity is marked my our consistent productivity through out our lives … so guess I need to find something to do and have something to show for my life
August 18, 2020
The case for more creativity and critical thinking in schools.
March 2, 2021
Not really anything new in my opinion. More a summary of lots of other research.
March 7, 2021
really loved this audiobook and the ideas in it!
August 16, 2023
I enjoyed this one. It made me write letters of thanks to my teachers for their creative & collaborative teachings.
February 19, 2020
How do parents and educators prepare our children to succeed in the future? The author makes a compelling case for project based learning and the importance of exploring creativity.
August 3, 2023
Fantastic read. Every out of the box educator will be affirmed as they read this book, and may find themselves shouting, "YES!!!! That's how I need to learn and need to have freedom to teach creatively to reach ALL learners!"
November 26, 2019
What will our children need for their futures, what will they need from their schooling? Dr. Terry Roberts has a visionary response to the question that is on the mind of every parent. Success will not be gained from a high test score, a high IQ score. What children will need is to be creative, to be able to adapt to new conditions, and to collaborate with others as they adjust to the changing world. And we, as the adults who care for them, will need to advocate.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews