Have you noticed? 'Think outside the box.' 'Think critically.' 'Be original.' 'Challenge me.' 'Innovative ideas needed.' Think Einstein, Picasso, Martin Luther King, Amelia Earhart.. Think differently. This is the message I'm seeing that has started popping up in local media, in ads and even school. Be creative.
It's like someone sounded the alarm bell and now the push is to magically get people to 'be creative.'
Magazines like Newsweek warn that creativity in America is disappearing. They call it The Creativity Crisis, and say studies are reporting that creativity in America (and that probably means us Canadians too) is declining.
In a now well known TED talk featuring Sir Ken Robinson, the concern is that schools kills creativity.
So now we are seeing all kinds of training programs to teach creativity.
But can creativity be taught?
That's where the irony slips in; to my mind, creativity is a human trait. But we get it belittled out of us at an early age. School is the biggest culprit in many cases. Human self confidence and faith in oneself is a delicate matter-it can be easily damaged by those who have power over us and who we are dependent on (like teachers, parents,coaches).
So rather than coming at it with the usual heavy handed way, (You WILL be creative now!) we would do well to think about not destroying or stunting creativity in our charges and in our selves in the first place.
Here are some useful links that talk about where good ideas come from and how to nurture creativity. Your thoughts please!
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.html
"You know, creative people clump together." Tom Stewart, Chief Marketing & Knowledge Officer, Booz & Company
3 comments:
I just blogged about this! I think the innate creativity children are born with can be given meaningful expression in a Christian context as part of being made in the image of God: a concept at odds with the business model of "orders carried out punctiliously" by the worker, or in the school by the student (yes, I've been reading Gatto). In Christian teaching, this Divine Image is sacred (and other religions probably too) and exists in every person, hence Jesus' teaching not to "lord it over". http://pollidoo.blogspot.com/2010/09/education-business-model-and-imago-dei.html
@Sara-thanks. Good point.
I noticed this too! It is like there is a new awakening to the importance of creativity and that we have squandered it enormously in the everdyday people. I hope it is not too late!
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