Tarka the Duck
7th June 2011, 18:19
This is a letter I wrote to a friend, after reading an assignment she had written on Creativity in Education as part of her degree. It brought up so many strong feelings in me...I wondered whether other people feel the same way? It seems that there are many creative thinkers on Avalon!
"Reading your assignment brought back to me what teaching used to be about when I first started. OK, it was far from perfect and many kids must have slipped through the academic net and didn't acquire the basic skills, but the aspiration was there - the wish that all would discover what it was that made them tick. Idealistic maybe...but so exciting and inspiring. Every day really did feel like an adventure - you never knew quite which direction it would go. It certainly wasn't an hour of literacy and an hour of numeracy every morning as it is now!
Things have moved so far away from that, and you reminded me why, 12 years ago, I decided that I had to get out. It really does break my heart when I think about what damage is being done on a daily basis. Mind you, reading what you have included in your assignment makes me wonder how I could ever have the audacity to stand up in front of a class and believe that I could be of benefit...
Tony and I have been talking it all over - he is actually the most creative person I have ever known. It is what drives him constantly, and oozes out of every fibre of his being...living with a creative person is exhausting/invigorating/frustrating/inspiring/intimidating/stimulating - a bit like a 2 year old – everything is constantly new, possibilities are vast and nothing is impossible as they can see endless ways of dealing with so-called “problems”.
I do wonder whether there is a tendency for society to associate creativity with only the Arts...images of lovely, cuddly ladies in flowery skirts wafting around making pots and pressing flowers (not that there is anything wrong with that - sounds great!). We seem to forget about creativity in science, in maths etc...
Everyone is creative – its our inherent nature – every animal instinctively investigates the world around it. Everyone's temperament is different and that is what we need to be in touch with and explore. I think maybe people have varying levels of creativity, but these are not good or bad. For some, this constant exploration is like life blood, and without it they would literally shrivel up and die! For others, it may be a more gentle and relaxed outlet for their imagination. But with the education system of today, it is slowly and systematically squashed out of us.
In art, it seems some people are naturally rigid in their expression of what they see in front of them, whereas others are driven by a unique voice inside them – Michelangelo and Van Gogh are equally brilliant. Someone drawing for the very first time can produce the same sort of magic – not the same technical skill but the same magic. It must be the same in other areas of creative thinking.
There is a danger though. Society is not geared up for creative thinkers. It doesn't tolerate them well, unless it can harness their creativity in some form that it understands - or offers them adoration from a distance, putting them up on a pedestal to admire and write about in the Sunday supplements. Tony's life has been so difficult and intensely painful but within that, he says that within that there is the release of a sort of cry of acute joy (the stifling of his creativity began on his first day at school when the head teacher told them all to sit down in assembly and he took objection to her tone of voice - she didn't invite him to sit, but commanded it...so he naturally refused and was whisked away to stand outside the toilets!! He said he knew from that point that he was not going to succeed in society!)
Maybe creativity is revolting against rigid manipulation? Mechanical-ness must be its enemy. A situation seems to be creative when we don't try to fit into a pre written programme...pure consciousness is involved in the exploration – it's not mechanical. Without creativity, we are fodder to be trained for the corporate world. They would like us to know our place... make the best of it... feel undeserving and guilt ridden, while they laughing at us. Suppressing our natural creativity means they can control us so much more easily!
Spontaneous humour is a moment of pure creativity! I feel sure that more and more people are suffering from (non-clinical) depression, because they find if difficult to fit in to the tight web of rules we are being bound up in.
We were talking about how many creative people suffer from a form of depression - Tony reckons that creativity is keeping the tap turned on and the flow running out - even if it doesn't always make sense, it will feel right - when you claim it for yourself, you turn the tap off and the water goes stale...you lose the openness (ultimately, that creativity will only be used for the benefit of others...a much deeper subject!!)
Tony's words - "Just think...it's a good day to die! With that attitude you are free".
"Reading your assignment brought back to me what teaching used to be about when I first started. OK, it was far from perfect and many kids must have slipped through the academic net and didn't acquire the basic skills, but the aspiration was there - the wish that all would discover what it was that made them tick. Idealistic maybe...but so exciting and inspiring. Every day really did feel like an adventure - you never knew quite which direction it would go. It certainly wasn't an hour of literacy and an hour of numeracy every morning as it is now!
Things have moved so far away from that, and you reminded me why, 12 years ago, I decided that I had to get out. It really does break my heart when I think about what damage is being done on a daily basis. Mind you, reading what you have included in your assignment makes me wonder how I could ever have the audacity to stand up in front of a class and believe that I could be of benefit...
Tony and I have been talking it all over - he is actually the most creative person I have ever known. It is what drives him constantly, and oozes out of every fibre of his being...living with a creative person is exhausting/invigorating/frustrating/inspiring/intimidating/stimulating - a bit like a 2 year old – everything is constantly new, possibilities are vast and nothing is impossible as they can see endless ways of dealing with so-called “problems”.
I do wonder whether there is a tendency for society to associate creativity with only the Arts...images of lovely, cuddly ladies in flowery skirts wafting around making pots and pressing flowers (not that there is anything wrong with that - sounds great!). We seem to forget about creativity in science, in maths etc...
Everyone is creative – its our inherent nature – every animal instinctively investigates the world around it. Everyone's temperament is different and that is what we need to be in touch with and explore. I think maybe people have varying levels of creativity, but these are not good or bad. For some, this constant exploration is like life blood, and without it they would literally shrivel up and die! For others, it may be a more gentle and relaxed outlet for their imagination. But with the education system of today, it is slowly and systematically squashed out of us.
In art, it seems some people are naturally rigid in their expression of what they see in front of them, whereas others are driven by a unique voice inside them – Michelangelo and Van Gogh are equally brilliant. Someone drawing for the very first time can produce the same sort of magic – not the same technical skill but the same magic. It must be the same in other areas of creative thinking.
There is a danger though. Society is not geared up for creative thinkers. It doesn't tolerate them well, unless it can harness their creativity in some form that it understands - or offers them adoration from a distance, putting them up on a pedestal to admire and write about in the Sunday supplements. Tony's life has been so difficult and intensely painful but within that, he says that within that there is the release of a sort of cry of acute joy (the stifling of his creativity began on his first day at school when the head teacher told them all to sit down in assembly and he took objection to her tone of voice - she didn't invite him to sit, but commanded it...so he naturally refused and was whisked away to stand outside the toilets!! He said he knew from that point that he was not going to succeed in society!)
Maybe creativity is revolting against rigid manipulation? Mechanical-ness must be its enemy. A situation seems to be creative when we don't try to fit into a pre written programme...pure consciousness is involved in the exploration – it's not mechanical. Without creativity, we are fodder to be trained for the corporate world. They would like us to know our place... make the best of it... feel undeserving and guilt ridden, while they laughing at us. Suppressing our natural creativity means they can control us so much more easily!
Spontaneous humour is a moment of pure creativity! I feel sure that more and more people are suffering from (non-clinical) depression, because they find if difficult to fit in to the tight web of rules we are being bound up in.
We were talking about how many creative people suffer from a form of depression - Tony reckons that creativity is keeping the tap turned on and the flow running out - even if it doesn't always make sense, it will feel right - when you claim it for yourself, you turn the tap off and the water goes stale...you lose the openness (ultimately, that creativity will only be used for the benefit of others...a much deeper subject!!)
Tony's words - "Just think...it's a good day to die! With that attitude you are free".