Working backwards from your questions/thoughts, I believe creativity exists within all of us so I don’t think it needs to be taught per say, as much is it might need to be encouraged or nurtured. I often dismiss the title of a “creative individual” as I think this individual, for whatever reason, was encouraged (or simply failed to listen when told otherwise) to explore their free thinking thoughts from a young age. Everyone has new ideas, but some have more than others and even fewer feel confident enough to express them.

It’s interesting to me that what seems to be valued most in curriculum is a student’s ability to regurgitate information. I don’t ‘blame’ the students who do this, since they’re simply being smart and following the system’s requirements but I do wonder what the educators assume the students are gaining by doing this? Are they truly learning how to become leaders who think on their feet when they are being awarded to memorize and repeat? There is definitely a middle road between those who are BS-ing (because they likely don’t know the content) and those who are repeating.

We are coincidentally going to be in Waterloo tomorrow for the Link Business Conference where our company, My City Lives (www.mycitylives.com), will be the basis of their case component. If you’d like to chat further, drop me a note and we’ll pop by when we’re done speaking – adil@mycitylives.com

Cheers

p.s. thanks for the Wilfrid reminder!

But it raises an interesting question…from the standpoint of a university education and course design, should creativity trump correctness? Or vice versa? For example, as a university professor I get some very “creative” answers to examination questions, but unfortunately they are wrong in that they fail to answer the question as posed and completely disregard the course material upon which the examination question was based. Some would simply dismiss such answers as bullshiting, but often these “creative” responses are a heck of a lot more thought provoking and fun to read than a standard, hackneyed response that simply regurgitates the text and lecture materials (and often generates an A level grade).

But perhaps an even more compelling question is…can creativity actually be taught? Encouraged yes, but taught??? Hmmm…

What are your thoughts, Adil?

I’m not sure what it says about you: it’s hard, and I like hanging out with friends…so…I take the easy way out. Creative? Hm…?

I guess it makes no difference now, but the assessment given to you seems to follow you around: “‘gifted’ but behavioral problems had prevented me from my ‘true potential’.”

Suck it up. Don’t cheat…

Nice to know I’m not alone

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2008/09/education-killing-creativity.html

The good thing is by recognizing this, combined with what I believe is being at an open-minded school, I was able to explore and nurture my own idea of academia. For example, rather than handing in a typical standard research report following a co-op experience, I was allowed to hand in a non-fictional story about my experience, framed as if I was writing for a magazine. For me, this was equally as valuable and being able to do it encouraged me to write more…and here we are now

Nearly 1/3 of high school kids are dropping out in Q which is mind boggling. No doubt, there are many reasons for that but certainly part of the issue is the system not satisfying the creative needs or interests of a large group of people.