Mod 5 Creative Person Interview & Narrative. The Undiscovered Creative - Betsy

Transcription

1 The Undiscovered Creative - Betsy Curled up on the couch at Betsy s house, we set up a time to interview her about her creativity. We are two hours into catching up and still haven t started touched on why I am here. The sun begins to set, and we suddenly realize that we have less than an hour before she must leave to join her church choir (which she calls band ). This all started a few days ago when I reached out, via text, to see if she would consent to being interviewed. Being Betsy, she truly couldn t believe that I thought of her as creative. Her first response to my request to interview a creative person was you want to know who I could suggest? followed by a wide-smile emoji. As we sat down, she asked me how I saw her as creative. My response was a question; how do you think I see you? Betsy was quick to share her love of music and her voice, but she was confident that she was not creative. As our conversation warmed up, and I realized that she was not only creative in the arena of music, she was also creative and passionate about her teaching. I ve watched her over the past five or six years, as our boys went through middle school and high school together. When they went on to high school, she joined the staff at the middle school as a paraeducator, working one-on-one with students. Her easy-going nature and happy personality made her a perfect choice; she has a way of putting everyone around her at ease. When our boys attended the middle school, I had noticed that she tended to drift to the musical productions that our children were involved with (although they were actors and lighting techies ). We d hear her singing along and directing the kids. The theatre director took notice

2 as well and before long, she found herself as the musical director. She had kept her talent hidden. Everyone wanted to know more about her background. Betsy discovered her interest in music accidently. In high school, she was taking a Moral Education class and the instructor offered to teach students how to play guitar. Thinking that just her brother had musical talent, she hesitantly thought she would give it a try. She found that she picked up the chords easily and enjoyed playing Bob Dylan, the Eagles, and other classic 70 s tunes. Although, she can t read music, she can picture the music. Betsy left for college in India and used music as a way to meet others in her dorm. It was there that she discovered that she could take a chord and split it into three keys on the piano for her friend, helping her friend with her vocals. Her family supported her music, but her father, a math teacher, really hoped that she would attend medical school. To appease her father, she considered becoming a social worker through college. At the time, she recalled that she didn t know that she wanted to be in education; nor did she know what she really wanted to be. After school, she held a variety of jobs telemarketing, selling cars, administrative assistant, and kindergarten assistant. It was the last position that inspired her. Betsy entered education as a kindergarten assistant; she volunteered with her son s teacher, who quickly noticed her ability to connect with others and encouraged her to join the staff. Her first connection was with a non-verbal autistic student that learned to speak with her. Although she lacked formal training, she describes it as having instincts that drove her to try different activities and ways of reaching the student. Betsy began creating images and providing visual cues for her student, encouraged by his success, they continued. Little did she know that she was using a system similar to PECS Picture Exchange Communication System. When I

3 couldn t find it through other people, I would try something on my own, Betsy declared. She was not content to wait to help someone. In Starko (2018), Kounios and Beeman (2015) define creativity as the ability to reinterpret something by breaking it down in to its elements and recombining those elements in a surprising way to achieve some goal (p. 12). Betsy was unaware that a system existed and developed her own to help her student. She determined what he needed and generated a new idea to utilize. To be considered creative, a product or idea must be original or novel to the individual creator (Starko, 2018, p. 12). Although Betsy does not read music, she describes her self as very visual when she works. I have to listen to it. Picture it. Transfer it. As the music director for a recent production of Beauty and the Beast, she described how she transferred it to students as telling them I see you [the student] doing this [gesturing with hand extended] and the music sounds like this. She can hear the singing inside of her head. Betsy doesn t attend classes and avoids YouTube videos that may influence her vision. Her solutions came not as a creative leap but as an extension of past experiences (Starko, 2018, p. 63). She tipped her head to the side and whispered, Did you know Paul McCartney doesn t read music either? She is proud that both of her parents supported her early interest in music and says that her husband is overjoyed when she does anything with music; whether it is singing with her band or directing music for the local middle school. She enjoys creating harmony. I can hear the music and I can slide under it. I ve made her late for her band practice and our interview is wrapping up. She looks at me and says, somewhat astonished, I guess I am a bit creative. I ve never thought of it, but maybe I am. It is evident to me that she is creative, not only in her music, but also in her approach to working with children, both in the classroom and as a music director. Starko (2018)

4 states that according to Maslow, people with a high level of self-actualizing creativity tend to do everything creatively. They are characterized as more spontaneous and expressive than average, more natural, and less controlled or inhibited (p. 57). This perfectly describes my friend and her exuberant nature. Throughout our visit, she shared that she is still close with kindergarten classmates (46 years!), the teacher that taught her guitar, and even the family of her first one-onone paraeducator assignment. She is the person that puts you at ease and has a way of making everyone feel included in her inner circle of friends. Her approach to life is one that is creative and flows; even without her recognizing it. Humanistic psychologist, Starko (2018) cites Rogers (1961) view of creativity as the product of healthy human growth. Rogers viewed creativity as the emergence of novel products through the interaction of an individual and the environment (p. 57). His vision of creativity involved three characteristics: openness to experience (comfort with ambiguity), internal locus of evaluation (relying on self-judgement), and ability to imagine and play with ideas (Starko, 2018, pp ). With no formal training, Betsy demonstrated her ability to, as she said, come up with ways and techniques; going by instinct. I think on my feet. In some senses, she is more akin to Weisberg s theory that believing that creativity is not a unique process doesn t mean that genuinely creative product and insights do not exist (Starko, 2018, p. 63). Betsy is more excited about getting on with helping others reach their goals, through the classroom or through her music experience. Creativity is purposeful and involves effort to make something work, to make something better, more meaningful, or more beautiful (Starko, 2018, p. 13). That is the life goals of my friend, Betsy.

5 Resources: Starko, A. J. (2018). Creativity in the classroom: Schools of curious delight. New York, NY: Routledge.