The Private Eye - looking closely and thinking by analogy with jeweler's loupes and inquiry method for hands-on interdisciplinary science, art, writing, math, and more







Jeweler's Loupe
Founder & Directors



Kerry Ruef

Kerry Ruef, founder and director of The Private Eye Project, holding a jeweler's loupe Founder and Director of The Private Eye Project, Kerry Ruef is a poet, writer, amateur naturalist, and former classroom teacher.  The recipient of numerous grants and awards, Kerry was twice a Writer-in-Residence with the Seattle Arts Commission and originated The Floating Poetry Gallery, a statewide collaboration of visual artists and writers.  The seeds of the The Private Eye Project sprouted very early in Kerry's life when she began seeking the habits of mind that are common denominators behind painters, poets, scientists, inventors, businesspersons, salespersons, great learners, and great teachers.  By 1988 she’d arrived at a theory, encapsulated in The Private Eye process.   On a four-year grant from the Discuren Foundation, she piloted The Private Eye process in The Seattle Public Schools —- as a way to magnify minds — and results were thrilling.   Students showed remarkable gains in ability to communicate, think creatively, and problem-solve as it also brought wonder and joy into the march of the curriculum.  Since then The Private Eye program has spread to thousands of teachers (kindergarten through college) and over two million students in the United States and Canada.  Widely praised for her workshops and keynotes, Kerry has presented to groups numbering from 15 to 1,500.  She is the author of The Private Eye (5X) Looking / Thinking By Analogy - A Guide to Developing the Interdisciplinary Mind, and The Private Eye - Simple Steps to a Magnified Mind.

Listen as she tells how The Private Eye began:

"On a hot summer day, in 1988, I'd been thinking about the enormous power of the metaphor mind, the mind that sees the world through the lens and network of analogy.   The doors of my studio were open and bees sometimes swept in and began banging their heads against the skylight.   The bamboo outside was rustling like taffeta skirts and it was an altogether lovely day to be thinking."
— from Chapter 1, The Private Eye - (5X) Looking / Thinking by Analogy
 
(Ruef, 2003, 1998, 1992, The Private Eye Project.)

 

David Melody

Associate Director of The Private Eye Project, David Melody has spearheaded taking the project from a regional level as a pilot project in the Seattle Public Schools to a nationwide educational program now reaching over two million students.  Along with Kerry Ruef he facilitates The Private Eye workshops and conference presentations.  He is a gallery exhibiting photographer, and his work has also been published in the United Nations Populi and The Smithsonian magazines.  David is a graduate of Harvard University.

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