JiscMail Logo
Email discussion lists for the UK Education and Research communities

Help for STAFF-DEVELOPMENT Archives


STAFF-DEVELOPMENT Archives

STAFF-DEVELOPMENT Archives


STAFF-DEVELOPMENT@JISCMAIL.AC.UK


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Proportional Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

STAFF-DEVELOPMENT Home

STAFF-DEVELOPMENT Home

STAFF-DEVELOPMENT  2000

STAFF-DEVELOPMENT 2000

Options

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password

Subject:

Random Thought: On Creativity

From:

Louis_Schmier <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Louis_Schmier <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sat, 7 Oct 2000 07:12:15 -0400 (EDT)

Content-Type:

TEXT/PLAIN

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

TEXT/PLAIN (327 lines)


	Good morning.  And, it is a good morning.  It is the first time 
that I've hit the pre-dawn pavement in almost five weeks.  A war of
biblical proportions against a vicious cold virus will do that.
Anyway, the muscles ached a bit and my breathing was a tad heavy.  But,
it did feel good being out there in the quiet once again.

	In the dark, I was thinking about two words I read in a student
project evaluation:  wonder and marvel.  As I thought of those two words,
bright images of the classroom, like sugar plum fairies were dancing in my
head that lit me up like the passing street lamps.

	The classroom has been rocking these past few weeks. Chairs strewn
about; students hunched over easel paper and poster board spread out on
the floor; students lying about, a serious pose on some faces, smiles on
others; color markers and scissors scattered on the floor; communities
outside in the hall.  Pen and pencils racing across paper, textbook pages
are being flipped, sentences being read, paragraphs being discussed,
questions being answered, fingers being pointed to words.  Lots of
creative noise; lots of creative movement; lots of learning noise.  and
movement. 

	It's the time the students are working on the "Broadway"  Project. 
After two weeks of community building at the beginning of the term, the
students have been applying the four working themes of the class that we
developed during community building: "It's Communication, Stupid,"  "Don't
Forget 'The Story,'" "Remember 'The Chair.'" "I Sang And So I Can Do
Anything!". 

	They've already done the "Dr Seuss" project, and just have
completed the "Salvador Dali" project.  The "Bruce Springteen," "Madison
Avenue," "Scavenger Hunt,"  "Nureyev," "Hemmingway," and "Jeopardy" 
projects among others, along which the course progresses, are waiting in
the wings.

	Four classes of first year history, over 200 of mostly supposedly
"average"--or less than average --students, 70 "communities of support and
encouragement of three" have been and will be engaged in a series of
projects.  For each project, they have been and will read, write, hunt,
talk, struggle, cut, think, create, gyrate, paste, search, curse, ponder,
laugh, imagine, snarl, draw, present--and learn.  No memorization here; no
cramming here.  They will learn history. They will learn people skills. 
They will learn communication skills.  They will learn about life.  They
will learn analytical and decision-making skills.  They will challenge
themselves.  They will push themselves.  They will risk themselves. 

	In the end, most will surprise themselves. The projects will take
them out from the comfort and safety of their known world into new worlds
and thereby expand their world.  They will unlearn and learn as the same
time.

	The rules of each project are simple:  

(1) as a community the students have to read the assigned chapters in the
textbook.  Yes, I do use the text as a core to the course.  But, then, I
don't lecture;

(2) the community has to develop a written response to chapter comments I
hand out; 

(3) as a class we discuss, argue, re-enact the community responses to
those comments;

(4) then, each community has to decide what it considers to be the most
important issue in the material and prepare a written defense of that
decision; 

(5) next, each community has to engage in a project explaining that issue. 
The project might be (a)  a ten page (cover not included), post-size,
illustrated "Dr Seuss" book, (b) an abstract painting of the Salvador Dali
Project, (c) a six minute "stage production" of the Broadway Project, (d) 
a three minute song, with original lyrics, in the Bruce Springsteen
Project, (e) a two minute interpretive dance in the Nureyev Project, (f) 
a commercial campaign in the Madison Avenue Project.  Symbolic items
found or created in the Scavenger hunt project. You get the point.

(6) and finally, each community has to present their project to the class
and teach them. 

	During the process, they have and will continue to bombard me with
a barrage of nervous questions, "What do you want?"  "Can we...."  "What
do you think about...."  "Is it all right to..." "Are we going to get
graded on...." "Are we allowed to...." "Tell me what ..... I expect it. 

	To the annoyance of some and the frustration of some others, with
a confidence instilling smile, I struggle to break their habit of
submissiveness and their habit of playing it safe.  My answer was and will
always be a quiet and short encouraging and freeing, "You heard the
rules."  "Remember 'The Chair.'" "It's your project."  "Don't forget 'The
Story;'" "What do you want to...." "You sang; you can...."  "What do you
think about...."  Sometimes I will smile and remain silent. At first, they
aren't wild about it.  Many are puzzled.  Slowly, as the semester
progresses, most of them understand, and the barrage quiets and their
self-assurance resounds. 

	The result?  Amazing!  The students are more surprised than I am. 
With so few exceptions, as one student imaginatively said in his
evaluation of the Dr Seuss Project: "from what our community did and what
I saw other communities do, most of us have been in and out of the
textbook and over and under the material like earthworms turning garbage
and stuff into a rich compost heap.  Who would have thought that we had it
in us.  I didn't.  I've heard so many "nos" and "that's wrongs"  that I
was scared to believe in myself.  So many teachers here and in high school
told me to do it their way that I was scared to make my own decisions.  I
just snapped to attention, saluted with a "yes, sir," and followed their
orders like a good little robot.  I became more interested in getting a
grade than learning, really learning.  Not here.  Here you couldn't help
but wonder and marvel at yourself and everyone else." 
	
	Wonder and marvel.  Interesting words.  Neat words.  Core words
for an education, or, at least, they should be.  This evaluation and
comments from a horde of others got me thinking. Maybe we teachers and
professors have to ask ourselves about the extent to which we are
therapeutic influences promoting wonder and marvel and significance, or we
are pathological influences spreading horror, fear, and trifle.  Maybe it
is because we so often impose pressure rather than have things done for
enjoyment.  So often we direct as loosely as authoritarian dictators; so
often we hover over students like vultures, making them feel so self
conscious that their creativity goes underground;  so often we make
students worry about the grade and how we will judge them; so often we
make them focus on the "what do you wants" rather than on the satisfaction
with their accomplishments;  so often we make them copy our answers rather
than ask their questions and make their statements; so often we demand
they do it our way that they don't have the excitement of learning how to
find their own way. 

	We overuse the rewards--and threats--of grades and underuse the
intrinsic pleasure of self-discovery, creative activity, and learning; we
put them in a win-lose competition with each other; we control and tell
the students how to do it; we control so much that we frighten, stifle,
paralyze, and suffocate; we confuse micromanagement with teaching, control
with leading, efficiency with effectiveness; we tell them what to do
rather than tell them to follow their curiosity; and we impose the
hothouse pressure of grandiose expectation;  above all, we impose time
limits that so often subtly destroy the process of "creative mulling," 
that explorative process of "walking-on-it," thinking about it, getting
it, and doing it.

	I find that creativity plays sweetly in the mind and on the soul. 
It has a arousing effect which heightens the range and intensity of a
person's readiness in which he or she is better able to deal with anything
at hand.  Unlike dull note taking, boring memorization or deadening
cramming for a test, and more like engaging lab experiments or field
experience, it's a seminal emotion for averting stagnation and boredom.
Like a steam piston, it drives the students forward;  it heightens their
joy.  It keeps them on their toes, alert and wondering and alive.  It
quickens their pace, brightens their eyes, sharpens their sight and
hearing, and increases their heart beat.  It gives a greater sense of
purpose and accomplishment.

	Maybe, then, as I thought about "wonder" and "marvel" this
morning, the ultimate purpose of education is not to hand out a test, make
assignments, give a grade, or hand out a diploma. Maybe the ultimate
purpose of schooling is not merely to be a series of vocational way
stations to a better job.  Maybe our purpose as educators should be to get
students to wonder and to marvel at the new rather than merely parrot and
copy the old.  Maybe our ultimate purpose, the reason for our existence
and the reason for students' presence, is to aid in the transformation of
the whole person, to be a series of way stations to a better life, to
assist each and every student to search for and discover and develop and
express and combine their latent talents and character with ideas and
skills in something new that they experience every day; to help each
student wonder and marvel not just about the material, but about him or
herself, about his or her latent potential, and be courageous and foolish
enough to drill deep for it and see what erupts from the well; to get each
student intoxicated with wonder and marvel first about something--and
ultimately about everything; to get each student to wonder and marvel
about complexities and difficulties, to utilize the tools of questioning,
noticing, and observing; to help each student develop a stick -to-itness,
a will, a strength, a drive so he or she learn not to give up easily at
the first sign of resistance and frustration; to assist each student to
break through the walls of fear and criticism that threaten to lock him or
her in a confining cell;  to help a student develop a compassion or
respect for others and him-or herself so he or she can fend off the barbs
of criticism and self-judgement that discourage taking of risks; and to
help instill in each student a courage to use his or her wonder, marvel,
intoxication, and drive.

	No. No maybes about it.  It's in the cradle of that constant
wonder and marvel that creativity and imagination really rock, and the
boughs of life-long learning about life will then never break. 




Make it a good day.

                                                       --Louis--


Louis Schmier                     [log in to unmask]
Department of History             www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta State University         www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta, GA  31698                           /~\        /\ /\
912-333-5947                       /^\      /     \    /  /~\  \   /~\__/\
                                 /     \__/         \/  /  /\ /~\/         \
                          /\/\-/ /^\_____\____________/__/_______/^\
                        -_~    /  "If you want to climb mountains,   \ /^\
                         _ _ /      don't practice on mole hills" -    \____






























































































































%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

JiscMail Tools


RSS Feeds and Sharing


Advanced Options


Archives

November 2023
August 2023
April 2023
March 2023
November 2022
October 2022
August 2022
May 2022
April 2022
February 2022
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
July 2020
May 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998


JiscMail is a Jisc service.

View our service policies at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ and Jisc's privacy policy at https://www.jisc.ac.uk/website/privacy-notice

For help and support help@jisc.ac.uk

Secured by F-Secure Anti-Virus CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager