Jiddhu Krishnamurti | The Direction of Intention

For The Sake Of Beauty [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on October 1, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“It is quite probable that the most original problem solving activity students engage in school is related to the invention of systems for beating the system.”~ Neil Postman, Teaching as a Subversive Activity

This just crossed my screen: rebellion is when you turn off the television and start thinking for yourself.

I was on a text thread with two friends, both life-long educators in the public schools. Both are brilliant teachers. One is retired. The other is nearing retirement and currently teaching math at an elementary school. He is struggling because, after a lifetime in the classroom, he’s not allowed to teach. His classroom “coach” demands that he be more concise, more regimented, that he transition on time…

It’s possible to turn off the television and not be allowed to think for yourself.

When I was a consultant my number one hidden agenda was to surface hidden agendas. How’s that for confessing hypocrisy! My favorite hidden-agenda-to-surface was a teacher’s: in contemporary education, control is much higher in import than learning. Don’t get me wrong, the teachers were always shocked-into-silence when their agenda was surfaced. They didn’t know. Their rebellion began the day they realized that they’d been duped into believing education was akin to force-feeding, that their job was to stuff context-free-answers into young minds according to a rigid schedule. To control. Note: the living, breathing, curious being, sometimes known as “the student” is nowhere in the equation. The living, breathing, caring, curious being, sometimes known as “the teacher” is also nowhere in the equation.

It’s possible to turn off the television and be afraid to think for yourself. In our current paradigm students and teachers face the same obstacle.

This brilliant Canna Lily brings David Hockney to mind. It’s a color found in many of his paintings. He was not afraid of color. He was a brilliant artist, an explorer. He once said, “The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you’re an artist.”

I believe that all kids are artists until the day that they are strapped into a desk and made to learn that control is more important that questioning and exploring and experiencing and expressing. The lucky ones keep the pilot light burning through the force-feeding until one day, they create beauty and it feels like cheating. And they know they will do it again and again and again. It’s a moment of rebellion, the moment when they unstrap themselves from the desk and the answers, turn off the television, and question…and wonder…and listen…and reach…and challenge…and discard…and willingly step into unknown territory. They begin learning.

“There is no learning if thought originates from conclusions.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

“One way of looking at the history of the human group is that it has been a continuing struggle against the veneration of “crap.” ~ Neil Postman, Teaching as a Subversive Activity

read Kerri’s blogpost about VIBRANT COLOR

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Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Education, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, beauty, challenge, david hockney, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, exploring, Jiddhu Krishnamurti, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, Neil Postman, questioning, story, studio melange, teaching, the melange, wonder | 1 Comment »

A Purer Music [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on May 29, 2026 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Education in the true sense is helping the individual to be mature and free, to flower greatly in love and goodness.”~ Krishnamurti

I like to think that Barney-the-piano’s flowering-in-love-and-goodness began the day he was moved into our backyard. For decades he was held captive in a dark church basement boiler room. Not only was he forgotten but the dry heat from the boiler destroyed his soundboard and, therefore, destroyed the purpose he believed was created to fulfill. We caught the junk man just in time. Instead of hauling Barney off to be dismantled and discarded, we paid him to bring Barney to our house.

Barney lived into a second purpose. It took a while for him to settle in, to learn that making music was not his exclusive talent or destiny.

As he lost his keys to weather, as his veneer curled and fell away, he became a refuge, a safe spot for birds and squirrels and chipmunks. The critters rest on his lid, build nests in his sound box. Each day the birds mingle on Barney and sing. Although he himself is not making the music, he knows that the sanctuary he provides gives the birds reason to sing. He inspires a purer music.

We have watched Barney flower-in-love-and-goodness. We have had the good fortune to witness his transformation, no longer resisting the forces of nature but moving in harmony with them. He is free and most certainly mature, no longer bound by a too-narrow definition, no longer invested in how he looks or what others might think of him. He is content. The dark times no longer define him nor does he bother to hold onto those memories. They get in the way of the birdsong. They distract him from enjoying the moment. He knows that distractions of the past interrupt his other newfound purpose: teaching us, his students, the power of letting go of all that we cannot control.

Kerri’s music is available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about BARNEY

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Filed under: Gratitude, KS Friday, Metaphor, Uncategorized | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, education, goodness, grateful on as it is, Gratitude, Jiddhu Krishnamurti, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, love, music, purpose, story, studio melange, the melange, transformation | Leave a comment »

See It All [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on August 6, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, The First and Last Freedom

More and more we are visiting local nurseries and garden centers. I am captivated by the colors and shapes of flowers and plants. Earlier this year, while shopping for specific herbs and plants for the garden, I saw through a different set of eyes. Consumer eyes. Now that our garden is planted and growing, our visits are different. They are not about shopping but about lingering. We wander. We allow ourselves to be pulled. Kerri takes photographs. The narrow focus of a consumer is much different than the open focus of an appreciator; artist eyes. It fills me up to see what is there beyond what I think is there.

Nelson Mandela said, “Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.” This from a man who spent 27 years in prison for resisting a brutal apartheid government. He understood to his bones the relationship of truth to freedom. Freedom is not possible if it’s based on a lie. Lies imprison. As we are now learning, to sustain a foundation of lies it is necessary to suppress freedoms. It is necessary to subdue and distort the truth.

Our divisions, just as the divisions of apartheid in South Africa, are based in lies. There is no truth to division based on the color of skin. It is manufactured, legislated. There is not an invasion of immigrants at our southern border. No one is eating dogs and cats. It is made-up, a hate-lever to those who would control and exploit their way to dominance. Concocted hatred is a worn-out colonialist’s tool. Mandela also said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.”

People can be tricked into hatred, and if they can be tricked, they are also capable of opening their eyes to the truth.

Seeing through they eyes of truth is different than seeing through eyes dedicated to lies. Eyes that seek truth desire to open, to see everything. All the colors and shapes. Diversity. Interconnection. Artist’s eyes.

The other eyes, the eyes of apartheid, the eyes of ICE, the eyes of current Republicans – are necessarily narrow. They see only what they want to see. They refuse to see beyond what they think. And, more to the point, in order to sustain the lie they need to bully all eyes to see as they see – or at least to pretend.

Pathological lies inevitably become an inescapable web, catching the spider as well as the prey. We are watching it happen in real time with the Epstein files. The liar is caught in his web of lies and so he deflects by contriving division, by escalating his lies.

Narrowing eyes eventually close and see only darkness. We are watching it happen in real time with the Republican Congress fleeing Washington D.C. to escape having to see the truth. All of it.

Truth is found by learning, by opening eyes and hearts to see all colors and shapes as they are, not as we want them to be. I am reminded of key lesson that leadership mentor, Eliav Zakay, taught his students: “Leaders shine light into dark corners.” It is the truth that liberates. It is the truth that sets us free.

read Kerri’s blog about CONEFLOWERS