Chapter Three. Creativity

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Chapter Three. Creativity
The principle goal of education is to create men
who are capable of doing new things, not simply
of repeating what other generations have done -
men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.
Jean Piaget I may safely predict that the
education of the future will be inventive minded.
It will believe so profoundly in the high value
of the inventive or creative spirit that it will
set itself to develop that spirit by all means
within its power. Harry Overstreet Never tell
people how to do things. Tell them what to do,
and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.
George S. Patton, US General
According to these thinkers, how will education
change in the future?
Make your own definition of creativity. Use a
metaphor, beginning with the words
Creativity is like
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Take some time to observe children. They are
natural artists because they allow their
creativity to run free. Their imagination knows
no boundaries and nobody has made them believe
they cant do something. If you
let yourself play more, you will start to awaken
that child within. This is important to help you
lose inhibitions and allow your imagination to
start to roam. A childs imagination is
boundless. Ideas are limited only by the
boundaries we have set with our adult
imaginations.
So how do you preserve or awaken the child within
once youve outgrown your youth? Think about the
activities you enjoyed as a child. Watch some
children play and observe the uninhibited way
they have fun and enjoy life. Try it! Play games
of hide and seek or tag. Have a water fight,
balloon fight or snowball fight. Get out the
squirt guns and play with them. Make mud pies.
How are children creative, according to the above
description? In most cases, young children
come to school in full possession of their
"creative spirits". Assuming that this statement
is true, address the following   Identify and
briefly discuss five things that can be
attributed to current schooling processes as
these processes interfere with or kill children's
creative spirits.
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Developing Creativity
Fostering curiosity Try to be surprised by
something every day Try to surprise at least one
person every day Write down each day what
surprised you and how you surprised others When
something strikes a spark of interest, follow
it Strengthening curiousity Wake up with a
specific goal to look forward to Try to make
whatever task you are doing more enjoyable Try
to increase the amount complexity associated with
the activities you do Protecting the creative
flow Take charge of your schedule find a daily
rhythm that suits you Make time for reflection
and relaxation Shape your environmental
conditions to suit your preferences Learn about
your feelings what do you like and dislike? Know
yourself! Start doing more of what you love, and
less of what you hate
My example
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A creative personality Develop what you
lack Shift often between openness to
closure Aim for complexity integrated (having a
central belief system) differentiated (follows
an individual path) Find a way to express what
moves you, to give body to your feelings Look at
problems from as many viewpoints as
possible Find possible solutions, and implement
them, experimenting with best fit Divergent
thinking Think up as many ideas as possible Try
to produce unlikely ideas Try as many domains of
experience/activities as possible, starting with
the ones you like, and expand form there (music,
cooking, poetry, games, history, religion,
sports, etc) Focus your energy on a few,
maintaining a life balance of priorities
My example
Share your ideas with your classmates. If they
cant think of an example, suggest one.
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The best and most beautiful things in the world
cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt
with the heart. Helen Keller
What are some of these things? Make a list. Have
people today lost their ability to imagine? Have
you?
Read this summary of Helen Keller. In what ways
was creativity the key to her life story? The
illness that struck the infant Helen Keller, and
left her deaf and blind before she learned to
speak, was diagnosed as brain fever at the time
perhaps it was scarlet fever. As Helen Keller
grew from infancy into childhood she was wild and
unruly, and had little real understanding of the
world around her. Helen Keller's new life began
on a March day in 1887 when she was a few months
short of seven years old. On that day, which Miss
Keller was always to call "The most important day
I can remember in my life," Anne Mansfield
Sullivan came to Tuscumbia to be her teacher.
Miss Sullivan, a 20-year-old graduate of the
Perkins School for the Blind, who had regained
useful sight through a series of operations, had
come to the Kellers through the sympathetic
interest of Alexander Graham Bell. From that
fateful day, the twoteacher and pupilwere
inseparable until the death of the former in
1936. Miss Sullivan began her task with a doll
that the children at Perkins had made for her to
take to Helen. By spelling "d-o-l-l" into the
child's hand, she hoped to teach her to connect
objects with letters. Helen quickly learned to
form the letters correctly and in the correct
order, but did not know she was spelling a word,
or even that words existed. In the days that
followed she learned to spell a great many more
words in this uncomprehending way.
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One day she and "Teacher"as Helen always called
herwent to the outdoor pump. Miss Sullivan
started to draw water and put Helen's hand under
the spout. As the cool water gushed over one
hand, she spelled into the other hand the word
"w-a-t-e-r" first slowly, then rapidly.
Suddenly, the signals had meaning in Helen's
mind. She knew that "water" meant the wonderful
cool substance flowing over her hand. Quickly,
she stopped and touched the earth and demanded
its letter name and by nightfall she had learned
30 words. Thus began Helen Keller's
education. She proceeded quickly to master the
alphabet, both manual and in raised print for
blind readers, and gained facility in reading and
writing. In 1890, when she was just 10, she
expressed a desire to learn to speak. Even when
she was a little girl, Helen Keller said,
"Someday I shall go to college." And go to
college she did. In 1898 she entered the
Cambridge School for Young Ladies to prepare for
Radcliffe College. She entered Radcliffe in the
fall of 1900 and received her bachelor of arts
degree cum laude in 1904.
What was special about water, that allowed Helen
to connect the hand gesture to its meaning? Do
you have any special symbols that are meaningful
to you?
Symbol, by Markus Mooslechner
How important is education to you that is, would
you be willing to work as hard as Helen? How can
education help to develop creativity?
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Throughout these years and until her own death in
1936, Anne Sullivan was always by Helen's side,
laboriously spelling book after book and lecture
after lecture, into her pupil's
hand. During her lifetime, Helen
Keller received awards of great distinction too
numerous to recount fully here. An entire room,
called the Helen Keller Archives at the American
Foundation for the Blind in New York City, is
devoted to their preservation. She held honorary
memberships in scientific societies and
philanthropic organizations throughout the world.
Mark Twain said, "The two most interesting
characters of the 19th century are Napoleon and
Helen Keller." In his eulogy, Senator Lister Hill
of Alabama expressed the feelings of the whole
world when he said of Helen Keller, "She will
live on, one of the few, the immortal names not
born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as
man can read and stories can be told of the woman
who showed the world there are no boundaries to
courage and faith." Or creativity.
Genius is 1 Inspiration and 99
Perspiration Thomas Edison
Genius is often associated with creativity. What
does Edison mean? How does this reflect the
lives of Anne and Helen? Edison invented the
light bulb, which is often used as a symbol for
creativity (see picture at right). How is
creativity like a light bulb? What connection
does this idea have to Helen Keller?