Kerry Ruef
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.
