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Your thoughts on the way creativity can strengthen society and/or strengthen
your profession,
and
as a leader of creative change, which you all are,
what would you like to see happen in the future?
And we can start with Kara.
I will start this time.
i think,
this is kind of going off of what Diego with saying earlier,
i would love to see our educational system embrace creativity as,
and put it in highest regards as they do math and science.
I think it's just as important if not more so,
and I think
it is our natural tendency, I do think that it's something that we're born with. We
are all creative, you know?
It varies depending on the,
you know, the amount
and how we are, but we all are.
And it is,
it's incredible that,
as children,
it was very natural for us to explore, to ask questions, to imagine,
and when we hit the educational system,
I do think that we're un-taught, you know?
They have to, they take it out of us.
They take it out of us because we learn that it has to be this way, this way, this way,
but there is one right answer.
And it just... that is incredible to me, that now
I'm teaching graduate students
how to do something that they were born
to be able to do.
And it just, it almost boggles my mind, really, you know? I mean, we are,
there are so many intelligent, incredibly intelligent people out there, and I know
there is sort of that move towards
"Oh, maybe this is, this, you know, this does have some some value."
But I think,
I think are our educational system would be so much more strong,
you know, if we really focused on that as much as we did some of the other things.
And now with those 21st Century skill reports, and all of the reports that have been
coming out lately,
and the word creativity is in them now, which we haven't seen in a long time.
Imagine that!
It's amazing. -It's an incredible thing
And I
think that
creativity is,
well, and even Bloom's Taxonomy, he came out, and I remember writing a paper for Don
Treffinger and saying I think that creativity should be at the top,
and he was kind of like, "Yeah, right."
Then Bloom came out and said that synthesis is really creativity, and that's at the
top! And thing is, in order to be creative, we know the Creative Problem Solving process. You need all those other
things. You need to be able to
analyze a task,
you need to be able to focus on details,
you need to be able to comprehend... all of things, everything is involved in
creativity,
and putting it together in new way,
no matter whether it's math or science or anything,
I think that all teachers should pick the most important stuff of their curriculum
and do something creative with it, and have kids do do something creative with it. And they're going to
remember that.
Because when kids have to make a video global warming,
they're going to always remember
those details
and those things that went into global warming.
We can't do it with everything, because we don't have enough time,
but if we pick
just,
like, the most important,
everyone takes their curriculum and says, "What's the most important thing?"
and, you know, works the kids through some kind of creative project,
that's what I would do to, you know, kind of change our society, change education,
is to really have those creative projects going on.
I think you're right. I mean, we need to start somewhere,
you know, we can't change it all together, we can't change it overnight. But by teaching
them these skills for them to be successful,
and creating that environment, back to the environment, too,
and
helping them to be better risk-takers, you know?
It reminds me of
Dave Meier, accelerated learning, which I'm sure that you're familiar with.
I think that's so incredible. I love,
I teach some of this stuff to my students,
but what, another thing that's just so strange is that it's common sense, you know
this is common sense. Get your kids to be immersed in it. Get them to be involved
physically, you know?
I tell my students, you know, "Just think about being a kid again. How did you
do this as a kid?"
That's really a good place to start, you know? How did you explore? How did you imagine?
How did you solve problems as a child?
Let's go back there
and start over.
-Kind of bring the curiosity back. Yeah.
Absolutely. -I remember
a parent actually
called me and asked me to please stop
asking her child to wonder at home, because she didn't know how to help him.
(laughter)
-See, then you could coach the parent! And he was one of the most creative kids
that I ever worked with! I said, "You don't, he doesn't need you to help him at home! He knows how to
wonder!" You know? (laughter)
Well, and I would have to agree
with Kara and Nancy, insofar as the need to really mainstream
this, you know? I think if it's something that
is taught right from the get-go,
children will
just naturally, like we do,
continue to apply the process to projects, you know, and so forth.
Because at my end, you know, when I'm working with adults,
Kara you said something about,
it's amazing that you have to teach
something to folks that they naturally have but they've kind of varied.
One of our challenges is to
get people to really believe
that they can, and that they are
creative on and so forth. And so it's
very, very important that they do
get that reinforcement , yo know, throughout.
The other thing, and I don't know why this popped into my head, but I
sincerely believe that
Creative Problem Solving,
learning that and
teaching that,
it will help.
If we're diligent, it can really help with addressing some of the major issues, the
major problems that
we're dealing with,
whether it's in a classroom, whether it's
in school, in a district, in a county, you know, or what have you.
And this phrase, for some reason, just kind of kept
popping into my head:
If you give a man a fish,
you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. And to me,
I really think that that's what CPS does. It gives people the
basic foundational skills
to advance,
and to take themselves and put themselves anywhere they choose to be.
And what kind of power is that?
And one of the things that, for me personally, that I've got out of
the,
the coursework and the training,
was that I finally realized that
I had more power
over what was happening
than I thought I had.
And I think once you have that realization, and you have tools to go with it,
you have a process.
Step one,
step two, step three. You know, folks need that until you internalize it.
That can really get folks anywhere,
And when we look at so many folks that, you know, have
all sorts of challenges, and we all do, you know, as well,
but I think we have an advantage. We have a process. We have a way to work through
it. But for that reason, I think it's important that it is mainstreamed at
some point,
K-16.
I think it's critical.
Now you have also had a chance to look at the longitudinal data from the Creative
Studies Project. -Yes.
And we have a whole host of impact studies as well on Creative Problem Solving.
But from the longitudinal data,
what kind of benefits, or what things really struck you about the power of
deliberate creative process?
Well I think it's just that, and
I think it's this whole... what I saw,
in interviews
with folks, is that the individuals that had gone through that two-year training
that ran from 1970 on,
the folks that had gone through that training, once they, once they did
finish it, they really took
their lives and their careers
and ran with it, and
started
all sorts of initiatives, and headed things up, and
were very active in their community, were very
active, you know, in expanding their career.
And so it's that,
if I can use the term, that locus of control, you know? Where do you think the
control is? Is it
internal,
or is it external?
And I think CPS,
I don't have
anything to back me up
yet,
but I really think that,
that
CPS can
it's at least affective in some way.
You know, not to say that it's going to give anyone
180 degree turn,
but I think it does
bring folks to the awareness
that they can actually accomplish what they want. And that's really what we saw,
you know, the folks that we talked that had been through the program,
oh my goodness, you wouldn't believe all the things that they had accomplished.
And the were still
enthusiastic, energetic and still, you know, creating new things and...
-And this was thirty years later. More than thirty years later!
It was more than thirty years later, yeah.
So I think that's,
that's a key part.
Now, you're saying empowering,
and it really is. It's empowering. I remember going through my first class,
what is it, what's the... 560 or whatever it is. The first class, and
having that realization that
I can solve any problem. So
whether it was My keys are locked in my car, and rather than just crying,
you know, I can solve this, you know? (laughter) So it's I can do this, and just believing.
And no one ever said
you know, in those classes, no one ever said,
"You should believe in yourself." I mean, that wasn't explicitly taught. But it
happened.
And that was one of the,
when I was looking at, for my Masters Project, was looking at the curriculum,
and it was not in there explicitly, but it was implicit, and
others had it.
the same thing happened to others, what you're describing.
Right. It seems to be a given,
you know, it's not that once you get in the classroom that the instructor will say,
"Well, see if you can do this." It's "Do it."
And you do.
And
certainly you have support behind you with the process, but you do. So.
I had a similar experience, too, with just the feeling of empowerment. There
were many instances
through the course
of the year, but
I think it was David Gonzales, who was an adjunct professor, who, he was leading the
Masters Project.
And we were just talking about kind of goals and
visualizing, and that's a big thing
with me, that I truly believe in the power of visualization.
But at one point, I was feeling stuck about something, and, you know I just
don't see this happening. And,
you know, I think anyone in the world could have said it at any other time, but
because he said it at that
particular moment,
at that
place in the,
in the,
in the program,
he just looked at me and said, "Why not?"
And it was, it was like this incredible moment, like, Yeah. Yeah. Why not?
You know? And that has just stuck with me.
And I'll email him every once in awhile, just, you know, Do you know how much you,
you know, impacted my life?
And it's,
again, you know, it was everything kinda coming together but it was that realization
that, Yeah, I
can do anything. And look what I've done so far, you know?
But in a way that I feel good about it. Not like Oh, look what I've done, but
I set my goal, I set, you know, these are my dreams, these are the things that I wanted to do,
and I've been able to do that.
And to share that now with, with other people and students, that,
that is so exciting.
Well it's funny that you bring up that language, because we all know how
important language is.
And I've got folks at work that tease me all the time because they'll,
they'll turn around and say, "Well it's not,
you know, we should phrase it 'How might I?'
Do this and that." So, "Okay, you're right, and so how might I?"
but, you know, other folks are thinking in that way,
and it is, it really is a great tool
to realize that just shifting those words a little bit, changing the
question,
is,
really makes it so much more powerful.
So it's a very good point.