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Lesson Plans


Re: Creativity

From: Henry Taylor (taylorh)
Date: Thu Jun 29 2000 - 18:52:25 PDT

  • Next message: Aaron and Jennifer: "Re: Creativity"

    I think that Jean hits it right on the nail head here.

    > The PBS show "1900 House" discussed just this issue.
    > The producers and parents were amazed at the
    > creativity the kids brought to some of their play.
    > The reasoning was, well maybe without TV, computer
    > games (all that canned, passive-for-kids stuff) the
    > children had loads of time to consider, think, play,
    > invent.
    >
    > It surprises me to hear people say, kids get into
    > trouble cause there is nothing to do, etc. Gee, there
    > are more things to do now than ever but kids are used
    > to being stimulated by something outside themselves.

    All the media exposure that these kids have had, in general,
    has taught them to be consumers of entertainment (and art)
    rather than creators. You simply flip a switch and then react to
    the resulting input. Creativity occurs when you play around with
    the video game enough to discover its tricks and "easter eggs."

    The point is primarily to have fun and avoid effort--the two
    things being understood as mutually exclusive qualities. We live
    in a culture that markets "fun." Fun is quite frequently
    understood as
    a state of normalcy. i.e. What life is supposed to be.

    There may be a valid point in this perspective but,
    unfortunately, it is
    sunk by the general lack of appreciation for effort or work.
    These two
    concepts seem to have been successfully divorced from any notion
    associated with fun. It is primarily an urban high-tech problem
    and
    not a simple one. Our Puritan heritage preaches the goodness of
    hard work and bitter medicine, but few of us, including our
    student's
    parents, I'm sure, actually appear to truly appereciate and
    thrive
    on that perscription.

    Right now the stats say that as a nation we are working harder
    and
    longer without any appreciable improvement in happiness--perhaps
    even some loss. It only confirms for many kids the negative value
    of
    work. We face SlackerGen II.

    Art offers, among other things, the opportunity to play hard AND
    work hard
    and do this in such a way that it is rather difficult to
    distinguish the work
    in the play--thus the complaints about artists being generally a
    lazy dreamy lot.
    The challenge for the teacher, I think, is how to get all the
    kids so engaged in
    the "play" of art that the experience of effort goes relatively
    unnoticed. I can't
    claim the knack for it yet but gosh durn it it's my primary goal.

    Today kids experience boredom in what I think is a qualitatively
    different way than
    a number of of us ever did. Getting them really excited about
    making something in
    a spirit of craftsmanship and aesthetics is or at least can be a
    tough proposition.
    Contributions appreciated.

    I do like the direction that Patty seems to be moving in. I share
    her frustration
    with the talented kids afraid of taking risks and with the kids
    who can't recognize
    any other authentically artistic talent than drawing.

    Modernist paradigms in art have traditionally, and in part, been
    about self-promotion
    as well as lucking into others who will promote a particulart
    artist. I find that today I
    am more interested in the fine craft artists and the work of
    outsider/folk/naieve/indigenous
    artists than fine artists or university-trained artists. I can
    generate more than enough subtly
    intellectual bubble gum for my mind and am quite convinced of the
    essential bankruptcy
    of most political thought.

    What I am interested in, artistically speaking, what I wish I
    could find, are artists who
     attempt to use culture and society as a medium of aesthetic
    expression and maybe
    even social mediation.

    -henry 

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