The Creativity Crisis

[InsatiableCuriosity]

Yes, at home we had a horse, dog and cats. We built things. We formed gangs and had mock battles. We made sledges and canoes. We went on day long bicycle rides in groups. We made bows and arrows. We did naughty things together. We shot sparrows with airguns. And we went rabbiting with ferrets. We had bicycle races. We joined the pony club for dressage, jumping, polo cross and the gymkhana. And we played tennis and football. Sometimes we rode the steam train all the way into the city and went across Sydney harbour on the ferry, all the way to Manly Beach. And on Saturdays we went to the movies to see two feature films, the news, a serial and a cartoon. And at night we listened to the serials on the radio. We would play a game of monopoly that would start on Friday evening after school and end on the Sunday evening. And our parents would read to us at night until the owl started to hoot.

And at school on Saturday mornings, we would have Atheneum where we learnt to formally entertain one another.

Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive, but to be young was very heaven.

On this I will indeed agree with you Victor - creativity and imagination are the gifts we can give our children and grandchildren by not second guessing their every need for stimulation!

 

[LunarMoon]

I’m not the least bit surprised about these research findings. The educational system has been one absurdly ineffective experiment after another since the Sputnik embarrassment and now, or rather for the last two decades, standardized testing has become omnipresent enough that teachers can no longer teach to student strengths. The idea of rote memorization is based upon an outdated Industrial Age economy, not the present Information Age Economy in which innovation is of primary importance.

Is creativity even useful for anything? I mean.. reallllyyy

Creativity is humanities only claim to fame and all and other talents such as logical thought are mere means to support it. The only reason we even managed to survive the Paleolithic Era is because some bipedal ape decided to combine a sharp stone with a stick in order to create a spear and because, assumedly, someone else learned to manipulate fire. What else could be our greatest quality? Physical strength? Absolutely pitiful. Compassion? Don’t make me laugh.

Thom Hartmann and Lucy Jo Palladino's "The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child":

Speaking of Edison. Has anyone else noticed the lack of Edison-tier creative geniuses within the last half-century? The man lived during a time in which Tesla, Graham Bell, The Wright Brothers, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, and Louis Pasteur all existed simutaneously. Who do we have?

 

[Such Irony]

I played telephone pictionary last night. That's a great name. No special equipment is needed, just paper and pencils and a creative mind.

If you haven't played it yet, you start by writing a sentence. Preferably a wacky one. Then you pass the paper to the person on your right and that person has to draw a picture based on the sentence you wrote. Then cover up the original sentence and pass the paper again to the person on your right. That person writes a sentence based on the picture. The previous picture is covered up and the papers are once again passed to the right. That person draws a picture based on that sentence. Keep going until the sheet of paper goes all the way around the table. The game is best with a large number of people, preferably 8 or more, as the final results are usually quite different from the original sentence. Some of the results end up being hilarous and that's the fun of the game.