A nice piece from Sassy Lawyer (even sweeter as she's practicing what she wrote) - Artists rock. I hope we all parents/mentors will internalize and really practice this in guiding our young ones.
Highly recommended also to watch the mentioned TED presentation of Sir Ken Robinson on education and creativity.
I fully agree that we need to rethink how we educate and raise our kids today.
I recommend this book (half-way, I'm reading right now) by Seth Godin - Linchpin - this book basically tells you how to be an artist in your work.
I hope our kids in the future will not require this book, as we already nurture them today to be creative thinkers rather than good workers.