Happy Birthday, Louis Braille

What do Jakob Grimm, Sir Isaac Newton, and Louis Braille have in common?

They were all innovators and creative thinkers and all born on January 4th.

As much as I am a packrat, I do not have the memorable reports I wrote in childhood. One, on Louis Braille, I remember in vivid detail. Pushing graphite pencil to paper, I ended the paper with his name in Braille. I remember , also vividly, his own eye injury in childhood, with an awl from his father's leather shop. Very sad, and his vision gradually diminished. The other eye also lost sight. Here is a brief online source.

I attempted a unit on creativity and innovation at JCU this past semester. There were some ups and downs along the way. In a college setting, many students are "implicitly" creative -- trying to weave together course loads, multiple responsibilities, work, and so on. Making what is implicit, explicit takes some time. I'll keep working with the unit in 2010.

Photo Credit: This beautiful picture is taken from the website http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/disabilities/br_intro.php