Educating Creativity

SPEAKERS: Alfonso Dehesa - Universidad San Pablo-CEU & HJ Barraza - ukini innovation lab

The importance of education around the world is imperitave due to the current global necessities. It is more important to have an adequate education, though. We are always facinated by what geniuses and prodigies do. Confucius, Da Vinci, Bethoven, Einstein, Hawking, etc. have been the superstars of human history and their names continue to thrill human emotions when talking about each of their own special subjects.

 

Creativity is a fundamental and natural capacity of human beings. We all are creative, although some manifest it more. Why? Have you ever experienced to be fluent in anything like when you are in a meeting and just dominate on the subject and everybody listens and gets amazed by what you say? That is when you become fluent on the subject and know that you are good at something. That fluent behaviour is creativity in action, not just imagination.

 

We all have something we are good at, but, will we be succesful in that in the end? That depends on how much practice you put into it. Think about a 11 year old boy likes soccer but flunks at school and the parents get him out of his soccer team to focus more on school. So years go by and by the age of 20 he plays a soccer match with his buddies. He's not going to be close as good as he would've been if he continued training for those other 9 years. Creativity requires practice.

 

Do you think Reimann (mathematician) didn't have fun? At one of the most tedious subjects for the alumni of every school in the world, he was a genious. When being 12 he discovered the calculation we now know as the Reimann sum which is an aproximation to know the total area under a curve. Remember, fun is emotions of joy and happiness. We all experience emotions like that when we do what we want.

 

Sir Ken Robinsons states in his book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, that there are three important steps in the development of creativity:

 

Finding your medium

Becoming an expert

Playing free within it

 

In order to let creativity flourish in students we need to have a vaster and broader field of studies for them to discover their true abilities. Not just math and grammar should be the most important subjects, but also soccer, ballet or even painting. Every subject is important because we some are good at painting but some may be good at math. That way students can find their medium, find what they're good at. About becoming experts and playing free within that area of expertise, that mostly depends on the students. But, if they have fun doing it they won't want to stop being those experts the world needs now.

Comments

[Steli Efti]

Great post guys!!! Sometimes I wonder if NOT being an expert helps you be more creative in a field. Not being bound by the rules, the "established" ways of doing things is an accelerator of true creativity - isn't it?

Almost every field, every market, every area in which we operate in suffers from an "effect" I call "Mind Incest".

Too many ppl, coming from the same background, studying the same things, reading the same books, thinking in the same patterns...killing creative new solutions...

To put it plainly: I am wondering how someone can become and expert in an area and at the same time prevent from operating in clear cut boundaries that might restrict his/her creativity in this field?

[Gabriel Kent]

I agree with the sentiment of this post and believe it contains an interesting point not specifically stated:

Schools should allow students the freedom to explore what captures their interest, even if at home the parents impose their own desires on their children.

[.hj barraza]

aaaah ! great question
about a year ago i met this old man Pedro Ramirez, an arquitect he was mad at young people (architects) because they all knew the same, thus they all produced the same.

The fuel of creativity is diversity, when people combine different backgrounds,(social, cultural, and education, etc) they are able not only to see things differently but also manage to produce differently.

I posted a comment a while ago, telling how some of my teachers got mad at me cuz i didn't used the same sources (expensive books) as most of my class. It was one of the best accidents i had (not having money for books) because it forced me to find new resources, and bring new ideas to the table.

Some teachers, gave A's some of them did almost all they could the fail me. All because i didn't stick to the sources.

Education and training (in any field and level) MUST stop treating individuals as mass production objects, they ARE individuals and need learn as such. As ken robinson states, each individual needs to find its medium and master it.

I never understood math, even Alfonso tried several times to help, i was helpless i didn't see the numbers or graphics in my mind. Until one day coding with processing.org i discovered the mandelbrot set. and by writing code and visualising the results i managed to understand perfectly a math function.

pencil and paper where not my medium, it was generative art which taught me math,

in brief,
to be an experts and be creative, we need to educate and foster diversity among individuals

[.hj barraza]

Gabriel says: "Schools should allow students the freedom to explore what captures their interest"

And schools should also adapt the students learning process, and make it interesting. such as the role playing game - based ideas which you talked before.

not every child is ok with listening reading or writing, human interaction and perceptions are way beyond this simple tasks

[florence meichel]

For me, you are creativ when you are able to break the patterns...it's not a question of being an expert or not...it's a question of openess and art of linking things with other things, ideas with other ideas in unusual ways...i agree with Steli : meeting different people with different cultures, and sharing ideas, experiences, projects, etc, with them is the best way to develop your own creativ skills !

[Josh]

To Steli's point about being an expert can stifle creativity, I disagree. I think that you have to be an expert so that you know how far you can push whatever your expertise is in. If you are an expert soccer player, to steal Dehesa's example, you have to be an expert at the basics before you can get flashy. You need to be an expert on basics in order to manipulate and transform your field.
Great collection of posts! I'm excited to read them all!

[.hj barraza]

"For me, you are creativ when you are able to break the patterns."
I would add the hability to PRODUCE, (to create), to put it simple, creativity is applied imagination.

You can think of X amountof different and new things, but you wont be creative until you actually create, (share your thoughts and apply them outside your own mind )

[florence meichel]

That's right HJ ! :-)

[alfonso dehesa]

i guess its not only in schools that we need to make a change but in a person's education as a whole. that would include the parents as well or any influence in the upbringing of anyone.

[Steli Efti]

Josh you got a point. I agree that you have to master the "basics" or build a foundation to be able to unleash the power of a medium/field/skill...like learning the scales before you are able to improvise a blues solo on the guitar. On the other hand...sometimes someone has no way of learning the basics and comes up with amazing alternatives based on that restrictions...you know...sometimes ignorance let's people do amazing things simply because they didn't know "it's being done" or "what can't be done".

I am wondering about the dynamics of "lack of knowledge" and creativity as well as "lack of resources" and creatity.

Any thoughts?

[.hj barraza]

well im dont know about "lack of knowledge" but Im really in intrested the lack of established paradigms...

a mind free of "scientific blindness"

[johan]

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