Can you Teach Creativity?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Something Rob C will enjoy (from the article):

You can’t program a child to become creative.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/how-to-raise-a-creative-child-step-one-back-off.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=pay&smvar=hlcaptest2&_r=0

[RSL]

Yeah. And the best advice is in the opening sentence:  "Back off."

[GrahamBy]

Excellent 

I had the chance to teach a precocious talent, a kid who was enrolled in the 3rd year university maths class I was teaching when he was 13. 18 months later he was doing his PhD at UCLA, where he was a full professor at 24, won the Field's Medal (Nobel equiv for maths) in 2006 and  a $3 million "breakthrough" prize in 2014, along with a bunch of other awards (Google him: Terry Tao).

What was interesting about him really was his normalness: he was still attending regular-for-his-age classes in non mathematical subjects, he wasn't socially weird, he was just interested, and he had incredible insight for recognising common features in different domains of study and then working to make those intuitive connections into rigorous proofs. He was utterly pleasant. His father was a high-school maths teacher, who simply pushed the bureacracy out of the way to let Terry move ahead at his natural speed, then got out of the way. He was also mentored very carefully by the head of the department, and in fact still works primarily in his (Garth Gaudry) field of harmonic analysis.

I had a briefer encounter with Ruth Lawrence, who famously started a PhD in theoretical physics at Cambridge at 12: at 26 I was battling to follow a series of lectures on geometric quantization at the Collège de France by Alain Conne, she was breezing along, asking thoughtful questions and generally having fun at 14 (and the lectures were in French). Once again, no sign of a parent pushing.

[Isaac]

Is creativity something that only applies to the prodigiously gifted or do ordinary people also show creativity?

[MattBurt]

I wish my kid could be a little less creative sometimes, at least in Math class!

[RSL]

That's not an example of "program a child to become creative" -- it is an example of program a child to play Mozart melodies.

For once Isaac actually hit the nail on the head. Who'da thunk? What the author is talking about is precociousness, not creativity. Creativity is subtle, and I think most truly creative kids are pretty quiet, though they make messes and get in trouble trying things. You might say those are things they shouldn't try, but creativity depends on trying things, and often on making messes.

[Telecaster]

My long-time friend Steve is, in terms of dexterity & speed, a much better guitar player than I am. His playing also has no groove whatsoever. I have to work steadily to maintain the modest technical skill I have, but I've been able to swing & syncopate with ease since I was a toddler (not on guitar 'til later, of course). I'm sure Steve could get better at going with the musical flow if he worked at it, just as I suspect I could be faster & more precise if I dedicated myself to that. But we're both inherently better at some aspects of guitar playing than at others.

So I'd put it this way: I think everyone is naturally creative in some area(s). Sometimes this meshes well with physical/technical skill, sometimes less so. Sometimes our creativity finds an outlet in whatever culture we happen to live within, sometimes not.

-Dave-

[Rob C]

Still cuttin' it ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYLaE4Gj1oA

Rob C

[AreBee]

Can you Teach Creativity? Can creativity be taught?

Perhaps not, but it can be unlocked, which amounts to the same thing.

[Rob C]

Can you Teach Creativity? Can creativity be taught?

Perhaps not, but it can be unlocked, which amounts to the same thing.

Not quite: only the individual concerned holds the key. At a stretch - very long one - a third party can say: hey, man, you've got a key in your pants!

This insistence on external factors bearing fix-its is simply a last-ditch self-deception device offering the faux comfort of all not being lost and denied the person without the talent.

As often recounted: I had a guitar at twelve; in my late teens I sold it to another self-deluded dope with similarly overactive imagination and glands.

I have no problem admitting to unbelievable lack of ability in as many directions as you care to mention; why is this state of honesty impossible for some other people to attain? The freedom is invaluable once you accept that you are simply what you are, and will never be anyone else. You do what comes naturally: the rest is bullshit, often highly expensive bullshit that weakens the bank balance and ultimately the sense of self-value when confronted with the inevitable failure of the dream that could not be. Fortunately for me, my musical dream ended before it became dangerous, and now serves as guidance rather than beacon of pain.

Rob C

[AreBee]

Rob,

Not quite: only the individual concerned holds the key.

I didn't qualify the identity of the keyholder.

At a stretch - very long one - a third party can say: hey, man, you've got a key in your pants!

Armed with previously unknown knowledge that they have a key in their possession, an individual has the newfound ability to open locked doors.

[GrahamBy]

There is now this species called the "coach". They make money telling people they have a key in their pocket, and not to doubt it. There is no money, or very little, in confirming in fact that the pocket in question is empty, or that there is conseiderable doubt as to what the key is good for.

It is consequently possible that there is a certain bias in operation.

[Rob C]

There is now this species called the "coach". They make money telling people they have a key in their pocket, and not to doubt it. There is no money, or very little, in confirming in fact that the pocket in question is empty, or that there is conseiderable doubt as to what the key is good for.

It is consequently possible that there is a certain bias in operation.

Why am I thinking snake oil, and the selling thereof?

If there's a key in my pants I know; if there's a tiny stone in my shoe I know that too. On the basis that my pants might hold more worthy contents than the space between foot and sole, I rest not only my feet, but my case.

I'm shattered to learn that Montalbano - of either generation - may have run its course. The older gent reminds me of my son, the younger one of no-one, unless of the hair I once owned. It was the only semi-soap I watched with bated breath, both to see if I could hack the mixture of dialects and to breath deep breaths of sympathy for 'Livia', again of all generations: always a honey! Why do these continentals manage to make such endearing characters whereas the English-speaking nations make cardboard heroes and brittle women? A western mystery.

Rob C

[GrahamBy]

The Midsummer Murders were very good once dubbed into French 

[David Eckels]

If I have a key in my pants, does that make me the keymaster?

Sorry, couldn't resist the reference to Ghost Busters

[RSL]

. . .there is conseiderable doubt as to what the key is good for.

That being the case, you'd probably we well advised to keep it in your pants.

[Isaac]

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All

No doubt the criticism will be creative, if not down-right fanciful.

[Rob C]

Creativity in action; real life before Internet gurudom.

https://fstoppers.com/fashion/remembering-and-learning-saul-leiter-8458

And, how it is when it's happening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RSknnxOals

Rob C

[Telecaster]

Personally I think most people, and most cultures, overestimate the importance of innate skill when it comes to creative pursuits and underestimate that of sheer determination. You can do a lot with a little if you're bullheaded enough and are given the opportunity to be so. Maybe we should think of relentlessness as a talent.

-Dave-

[RSL]

So Picasso was just a hard worker.