In Order to Teach Creativity We Need to Teach Children Not to be Afraid of Making Mistakes

In Order to Teach Creativity We Need to Teach Children Not to be Afraid of Making Mistakes

I heard that on public radio the other day.  At first it sounded good to me.  You know the speaker made a good case for it.  But then I started to think about it and in doing so I have to ask myself, "What planet arte you from?"

To teach a child not to be afraid of making mistakes is not the nature of creativity.

The nature of true and utilizable creativity and creativity of beauty is indeed that a child learned how not to make mistakes and extended that knowledge with regard to creativity!

It is called transformational learning.  It implies that you learned one thing in the first place without making mistakes.

So what is the nature of someone who wants to be able to teach children not to be afraid to make mistakes?  It is the nature of someone who knows that they do not have the ability to teach a child not how to make mistakes!  It is an admittance of a total failure of the educational system.

Creativity is of no value unless it is responsible creativity.  And I am indeed talking in broader terms of creativity than just representational or nonrepresentational artwork.

What those who are making decisions with regard to our educational system fail to realize is the creativity is one level of intelligence above the ability to not make mistakes.

And if you want to extend the concept to art that people do indeed find more pleasing than other art what you are likely to find out is that those whose art is liked the best were going along on their merry way in life when someone who was not afraid to make mistakes in life harmed them! But don't get all hung up on that because what you don't want to recognize is that the person who is the great artist was always going to be the great artist.  Why?  Because the creativity principle is one step above the knowledge of knowing how not to make mistakes!

And Jesus Christ, the whole nature of the education system is to learn not to make mistakes.

So what planet are you from?

Copyright2013 Thomas Paul Murphy

Originally published on 03 16 2013 at: www.themilwaukeeandwisconsinnews.blogspot.com