Ever met a small child that can’t sing?
Or one who says they can’t dance?
Paint? Draw? Act?
No, you won’t have done. They just do it, play, dance, sing etc. It’s only as they get older that they learn that singing, dancing, drawing aren’t things that everyone does, it’s reserved for people who are “good at” those things.
Walking down the street or chatting with friends is considered normal, but anything requiring “creativity” is reserved for only a few.
This nice piece talks about why this happens.
Have you ever seen a program or show by Derren Brown? If so, you might believe magic does exist in some real sense. What he does during a show is nothing short of breathtaking and has people scratching heads and whispering loudly as to how his wizardry is achieved. Recently I went to see his latest stage show, Infamous. Without giving away any of the details of the show (which was excellent), it made me think about creativity, talent and the path people travel to develop their skills. He weaves a story throughout the show about the trials of his childhood. It seems much of what happened shaped him and helped him hone his skills and passion, and, in some way, developed his desire to be infamous.
Sir Ken Robinson spoke in his 2006 TED talk about creativity and how the whole of our education system (indeed all education systems…
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One of my favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, had this story to tell about when he did a talk for a class of seven-year-olds:
“‘When I was your age, people told me not to make things up,” I told them. “These days, they give me money for it.”
On a very similar subject, I highly recommend watching his commencement speech to a University here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb-NYkseI
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Good quotes from Marv Weisbord, ‘Techniques to Match Our Values’ –
In a 1920 article, Kurt Lewin described the “life value” of work. “The worker,” he
said, “wants his work to be rich, wide, and Protean, not crippling and narrow. Work
should not limit personal potential but develop it. Work can involve love, beauty, and the
soaring joy of creating. Progress, in that case, does not mean shortening the work day,
but an increase in the human value of work.”
–Kurt. Lewin, “Die Sozialisierung des Taylorsystems.” Praktischer Sozialismus,
1920 (4), 5-36.
In her 2005 book Margaret Wheatley writes, “We have forgotten many
important truths about human motivation. Study after study confirms that people are
motivated by work that provides growth, recognition, meaning, and good relationships.
We want our lives to mean something; we want to contribute to others; we want to learn;
we want to be together. And we need to be involved in decisions that affect us. If we
believed these studies and created organizations that embodied them, then work would be
far more productive and enjoyable.”.
–Margaret Wheatley, Finding our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. San
Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2005, p. 151.
(I may not be able to prevent myself returning with my favourite quotes from Marx and Saint-Simon, who after all was the wellspring of Marx’s concept of alienation, which I have in fact been carrying around for just such a purpose…)
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