The
Killer Rhetorical Question: Don’t You Have Something Better To Do?
“The true novelist, poet,
musician, or artist is really a discoverer.”
An Anatomy of Inspiration
(1942)
Rosamund
E. M. Harding
“Curiosity and creativity are genetic characteristics of humans, well
demonstrated in pre-school youngsters. Later, the characteristics often atrophy
as people adapt to the pressures of structures, inertias, reward systems, and
responsibilities associated with schooling and employment. Interactions with
this surrounding culture can yield a much more positive result if the
individual develops some understanding of the process of creativity, and/or if
the culture facilitates and motivates creativity. In other words, the spark of
creativity can be smothered or fanned into flame. The potential is genetic and
we all have it; its nurturing determines its strength.
“Civilization is in the midst of unprecedented growth. This presents
unprecedented opportunity and responsibility. Creativity and the associated
invention/innovation and entrepreneurship, benefiting both individuals and
society, are essential elements if civilization is to move to a desirable,
sustainable condition. Pioneering schools are changing educational
methodologies so as to give creativity the high priority it deserves.”
Unleashing
Creativity (1995 Speech)
Paul B.
MacCready, AeroVironment, Inc.
A keynote presentation at the Lemelson Center's
symposium, "The Inventor and the Innovative Society," November
10, 1995
CURIOSITY, AND
THUS CREATIVITY STARTS WITH CHILDREN.
Dr Paul
MacCready, one of the most prolific American inventors in his lifetime, said in
the Keynote speech at the 1995 Lemelson Centre’s symposium excerpted above "Watch
a 3-5 year old youngster and you see in action a curious, creative inventor, an
explorer, a self-motivated scientist/engineer, an artist, a comedian, a
remarkable linguist, and, in uncanny skills for manipulating adults, a
consummate psychologist. And all this can be relatively independent of IQ and
socioeconomic circumstances. As the child acquires skills and knowledge in
schools, and later experience as an adult, some narrowing occurs. "
What causes the
narrowing that Dr Paul MacCready talks about?
Before I start in
earnest I want to adjure you, especially if you are a parent or guardian, the
next child you see fiddling with some old equipment or contraption, please do
not ask that child, "Don’t you have something better to do?"
It was Ken Robinson that argued
that the current education system is "educating people out of their
creativity". In
my second post on this blog, I had promised to explain why I agree with Ken
Robinson — actually Sir Kenneth Robinson, educator and author.
However the position I am presenting here is that for the
Nigerian (African) context, it is our prevailing child-rearing system that is "educating
people out of their creativity."
Sir Kenneth
Robinson is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education
in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies. He was
Director of The Arts in Schools Project (1985–89), Professor of Arts Education
at the University of Warwick (1989–2001), and was knighted in 2003 for services
to education. In his scholarly work, Sir Robinson has focused on creativity in
the general population with respect to education.
From his ideas
about education, Robinson has suggested that to engage and succeed, education
develop on three fronts. First, that it should foster diversity by offering a
broad curriculum and encouraging individualization of the learning process;
That it should foster curiosity through creative teaching, which depends on
high quality teacher training and development; And finally that it should focus
on awakening creativity through alternative didactic processes that put less
emphasis on standardized testing, giving the responsibility for defining the
course of education to individual schools and teachers. He believes that much
of the present education system in the United States fosters conformity,
compliance, and standardization rather than creative approaches to learning.
Robinson emphasizes that we can only succeed if we recognize that education is
an organic system, not a mechanical one. Successful school administration is a
matter of fostering a helpful climate rather than "command and
control".
For Nigeria, successful child
rearing should be a matter of fostering a helpful climate rather
than "command and control".
The statement I
believe with which most parents and / or guardians, whenever they have uttered
it without thinking, killed their children’s and / or wards’ curiosity and thus
their creative inclination: DON’T YOU HAVE SOMETHING BETTER TO DO?
I don’t know if this
ever happened to you while growing up. You were out in the backyard, alone or
with some playmates, ‘fooling around’ with some old junk you found lying around
and a parent, seeing you busy do nothing, at least from their own point of
view, then comes and asks, "Don’t you have something better to do?"
Of course, your
parent(s) means well for you. They want you to succeed in life: get a good
education and get a well paying job afterwards. However this may not
necessarily be your own pathway to success in life. But your parent may not
know this.
Certainly, children
require robust guidance and the setting of strict limits, so they do not wander
off tangent. What should be aimed at therefore is balance. The challenge is
knowing what that balance is or should be. Parenting skills are hardly taught
in this part of the world, so how would a parent (educated or not) learn how to
raise a curious and creative child?
Children are
curious, very much so. What do you do with curious children?
I have no
perfect answer — I am still pondering the question myself. However I have used
my personal experience growing up to try and give my own children a better
chance at exploring their natural curiosity.
WE CAN TEACH OUR
CHILDREN CREATIVE THINKING AT HOME WHICH IS WHERE CHILDREN, I HAVE OBSERVED,
ARE MOST INTUITIVE.
This is
definitely a challenge, I acknowledge, with most people already choked with the
effects of trying to provide the basics for the same child. Yet if we can
support the child’s development in this way, then you would achieve a much
better outcome. Learn the child’s temperament, natural inclinations, tendencies
as well as idiosyncrasies...then guide the child. It would be a far more
rewarding and enriching relationship.
Let me highlight
the work of Graham Wallas, English social psychologist and London School of
Economics co-founder. Published in 1926, The
Art of Thought — outlines 4 stages of the creative process, based
both on his own empirical observations and on the accounts of famous inventors
and polymaths.
In the Graham Wallas stage model, creative insights and
illuminations may be explained by a process consisting of 4 stages:
(i) preparation (preparatory work on
a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the
problem's dimensions),
(ii) incubation (where the problem is
internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be
happening),
(iii) illumination or insight (where
the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious
awareness); and
(iv) verification (where the idea is
consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied).
Some people like to consider 5 stages: often adding ‘intimation’
(the creative person gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way) to
the process after ‘incubation’.
Wallas considered creativity to be a legacy of the
evolutionary process, which allowed humans to quickly adapt to rapidly changing
environments. THIS IS WHERE I DIFFER FROM GRAHAM WALLAS. I am of the view that
creativity is divinely inspired rather than a legacy of the
evolutionary process.
Beyond Graham Wallas’s
work there are several other models proposed in the creativity literature for
the process of creative thinking. Arieti (1976) cataloged seven additional such
models that were proposed during the period 1908 to 1964. Several more models have been proposed since.
Analysis of these various models reveals some common threads.
- The creative process involves purposeful analysis, imaginative idea generation, and critical evaluation — the total creative process is a balance of imagination and analysis.
- Older models tend to imply that creative ideas result from subconscious processes, largely outside the control of the thinker. Modern models tend to imply purposeful generation of new ideas, under the direct control of the thinker.
- The total creative process requires a drive to action and the implementation of ideas. We must do more than simply imagine new things, we must work to make them concrete realities.
These insights from a
review of the many models of creative thinking should be encouraging to us.
Serious business people often have strong skills in practical, scientific,
concrete, and analytical thinking. Contrary to popular belief, the modern
theory of creativity does not require that we discard these skills. What we do
need to do, however, is to supplement these with some new thinking skills to
support the generation of novel insights and ideas.
Let
children, play, and learn from what is around them. Guide their curiosities,
and channel their energies. Try not to stifle their creative development to
much by compelling them to conform to rigid and inflexible curricula of formal
education. Follow up with the stages of the creative process Mr Wallas proposed,
if you find it useful. If you run out of ideas, GET HELP. All these should not
stop the parent making sure the child still gets a regular education, too.
Again,
I say that curiosity and thus creativity starts with children. LET US ALLOW
CHILDREN DEVELOP THEIR CURIOSITY. It has great future rewards, I believe. PLEASE,
LET OUR CHILDREN FOLLOW THEIR CURIOSTY AND DISCOVER THE JOY OF DISCOVERING
THINGS. . .
Reference
& note:
Arieti, S (1976) Creativity:
The Magical Synthesis. New
York: Basic Books.
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