Weekly Assignment 1 Creativity Esperanza Florida International University Spring, 2016 1161 IDS3336 Artistic Expression in a Global Society Section RVD January 23, 2016 Instructor: Professor Maria Marino 1
1- Why does Ken Robinson believe Art is less valued in our education system than subjects like Math and Science? Do you agree? Ken Robinson in his video "How School Kills Creativity," explains his interest in human creativity in school education and how it has been suppressed over time. He states that our educational system has only allowed students to use the left side of their brains, completely canceling their creativity, while creating a great fear of being wrong. Robinson says that as we all know, children are extremely innovative, creative and born with tremendous talents that we are not letting grow. He argues that creativity is as important in education as literacy, and he suggests that we should teach it and implement it at the same level of education. He supports his arguments with short stories which demonstrate his points of view. Robinson insists that schools should not just reward academic ability but creative thinking as well. Intelligence is not just being good at math and science; it s being able to use the dynamic capability of the entire mind being creative and not just logical. Robinson says that "Every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. At the top are mathematics and languages, then a humanities, and the bottom are the arts" (2). They should be valued equally, since all are equally important. Creativity is as important as literacy, but creativity has never been rewarded in society as have other subjects. The lecture ends with the desire of Robinson to incorporate creativity into the educational system. He suggests that this system should be revised since it was created a long time ago and with the intentions of industrialism. He based his idea on how the current education is just a long process of entering a university and consequently many creative talents that will not be valued and rather stigmatized. Robinson concludes by saying "Our education system has mined our minds" (3). He believes that we need to radically rethink our view of intelligence and that our 2
only hope is to adopt a new conception of human capacity. He proposes that we should rethink the fundamental principles on which we have been educating our children and let creativity begin an important part in education. Robinson seems to be concerned about the obsolescence of our school system. This video made me wonder about our schools today and whether or not they are obsolete. In most American classrooms, the teacher stands in front of a group of students sitting in desks and all of the desks are still placed in rows. The teacher delivers content to the students so that they can learn. Students are evaluated on their rates of knowledge and classification. This process is repeated daily for 13-17 years, depending on whether the student decides to attend to college or university. We talk about technology in the classroom, paying teachers higher salaries, and raising test scores but what is misplaced or omitted? Most people tend not to concern about the structure of the school system itself, but Robinson did and I agree with his point of view. Robinson s solution is to implement creativity. He states that our competitive advantage of innovation is at risk because of a loss of creativity created by the traditional education system in place in America s classrooms. Particularly I am a creative person, my life and my work have always depended on creativity. Creativity has always been present in my life. I raised my daughters with creative thinking, and I believe that creativity is a very essential matter in education. Creativity is as important in education as knowledge, and like Sir Ken Robinson, I think we have to change the model of teaching. I agree with Robinson, our public education was designed for a world that does not exist anymore. We need to rethink, remodel and redesign how students are educated. I believe that our public education it is not just broken, it is out-of-date! 3
2- From dance to walking, running, Ken Robinson and Csiksentmihalyi talk about (in different ways) the role of the body and movement in facilitating creativity. Does bodily movement affect creativity in your experience? How so? Walking, running and dancing can definitely facilitate our creativity. The movement of our body gives us a variety of options that encourage the creation of associations, exploration, improved balance, recognition of standards, and expression of emotions. It also facilitates concentration, communication, relationships, and strengthens self-esteem and autonomy. It encourages creativity as a means of expression and provides tools to solve problems. 3- Csikszentmihalyi describes some forms of entertainment as keeping us from creativity (bottom of p 348). What is his argument? Do you agree? Can forms of entertainment also encourage creativity? Creativity is a force that governs humanity in ourselves - an innate function of the mind. It is, in essence, our outward expression of inward thought or emotion. Finding our inspiration (or "Muse") is the gateway to our creativity. This seems to be an obvious factor, but constantly surprises me how some people can tell me specifically what inspires them. Sometimes it takes time to get inspiration, I can tell, I have been all my life playing with inspiration. In my opinion some forms of entertainment like TV for example, requires little creativity or thought. Just look at someone who is watching TV and watch his facial expressions. Most of the time, you can find that his eyes are open and his mind is off. This is because most shows are dedicated to exercise the imagination by yourself. Again, this can be a good thing, as long as you use it as a creative trigger rather than a murderer of the imagination. I refer to the forms of media 4
such as TV and movies murderers of imagination because many times, we observe but do not imagine our creativity, we look the creativity of others. A great way to exercise creativity is utilizing literature, audiobooks or songs of good storytelling as a form of entertainment, because rather than having a scene play out before us, we have to imagine every aspect of the scene described to us for ourselves. 4- Based on the reading from Spivey, how are imagination, art and creativity related? Imagination and creativity are attitudes that have existed since we were born, but in order to form a creative and imaginative personality, it is necessary to make the means and instruments available to individuals for their development. It is there where art intervenes as a method to enhance our imagination and creativity. According to Spivey, through observation and senses man knows the world around him. We can all be creative if we learn to observe and capture the phenomena occurring around us. This has been demonstrated throughout history through different artistic representations captured over time. This sensitivity allows us to remain open to the outside and inside of the universe around us. Creativity is to put your imagination to work and to produce as results the most extraordinary piece of art. 5- What role does think a person s environment has on creativity? Give examples. To Csíkszentmihályi, the underlying problem of creativity lies in the vision and social assessment made of it; that is only possible when people converge able to be creative and cultural environments that recognize their actions as such. This would indicate that the most important aspect is the environment, because of its characteristics and conditions, favorable or 5
unfavorable to creative activity, will depend on real opportunities for people to be creative. From this perspective, psychological and cognitive individual characteristics weigh much less than the environment in the equation of creativity. In my opinion there is a convergence between creative individuals and conducive environments to creativity. Csíkszentmihályi argues that only when the social and cultural environments are able to foster creativity, it will be in creative people. I think both positions are interesting because they bring us two critical levels of creativity: the special conditions of creative people, reflected in psychological, cognitive and emotional aspects, as well as certain cultural or environmental conditions that must be met for creativity to flourish. It seems unquestionable to me that both positions carry an equal weight in the equation of creativity. If so family, community, and educational institutions, as privileged places of socialization and development of people in the subjective, intersubjective and cognitive levels play a crucial role in promoting creativity, but the media and environments people experience throughout their lives are just as important. 6- Csikszentmihalyi describes a relationship between creativity and the struggle against problems and obstacles. Do you agree? Why/Why not? Definitely I agree with Csikszentmihalyi. Today, we know with certainty that sociocultural environments which are economically, emotionally, intellectually and morally poor, have a devastating effect on the psyche and human intelligence of those who live in these environments; on the contrary, people who are born and grow up in environments with families, emotional and economic stability, and where there are spaces for cognitive and cultural development are more likely to reach a happier, more fulfilling high intellectual level and life. Poverty, coupled with the 6
deterioration of the basic functions of the nuclear family and loss of quality of education for children and young people certainly does not give us a satisfactory picture to develop talent and creativity. 7
Works Cited Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Collins. 343-372 Robinson, Ken. "Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth spreading. 20 Apr. 2009 <http://ted.org/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html>. Spivey, N. J. (2005). The Birth of the Imagination. How Art Made the World. New York: Basic Books. 16-49 8