I have been thinking about creativity and innovation and how important these are for our ability to fulfil the needs of the future. Both rely on being given the freedom to 'think out of the box', to take risks and to experiment with unconventional approaches.
Over the past 200 years some of the most exciting and innovative advances in early years thinking have come from such free-thinking pioneers. Some were not even originally educators, but started in very different careers.
For example, Frederick Froebel was studying architecture in Frankfurt when he was persuaded by a friend - who was fired up with enthusiasm about Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi - to take a post in a school. And Maria Montessori was a scientist and medical doctor until her work led her to explore the development of young children.
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