Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Go Forth And Create
Go Forth And Create
Mar 17, 2025 7:12 AM

Are you creative? No, that’s not one of those silly Facebook quizzes; it’s a serious question. Would you describe yourself as “creative?”

Turns out, that’s a pretty important question. Folks who study such things say that “creativity” is one of the things employers are looking for in today’s workforce, and not just in places like Silicon Valley. While we value creativity in our culture, it seems as if we’re quashing it in our kids: Common Core doesn’t exactly call for “outside the box” thinking.

Are you creative? If you say “no,” then can you be taught to be creative? It seems that you can. Gerard Puccio at Buffalo State College in New York teaches creativity.

Puccio teaches his students that es in four stages – clarifying, ideating, developing and implementing. Clarifying is ensuring you’re asking the right question; ideating is about exploring as many solutions as possible; developing and implementing are making sure the idea is practical and convincing to others.

Of the four, ideating is perhaps the stage that most obviously involves innovative thinking. It’s here that the familiar brainstorming es into play. The idea, says Puccio, is to force the brain out of a purely analytical state in which it tends to focus on one solution and ignore other options. A de-focused mind is more likely to make the unusual connections that just might suggest a novel solution to the problem.

Gabrielle Emanuel learned creativity at Dartmouth … but not in a classroom. She learned it at a workbench, figuring out power tools with a man named Dudley Whitney.

As a student at Dartmouth, I spent oodles of time in his shop. It’s a place with no curriculum and no grades. The studio is open to anyone.

Students and professors can just swing by with an idea of something they want to make and, then, they work one-on-one with Whitney or another instructor to learn how to make it.

During my four years, I carved bowls and built desks. But mostly I asked zillions of questions.

That’s the kind of atmosphere that encourages and even, well, “creates” creativity. Whitney, it seems, innately knows what Puccio knows: that creativity can be taught, but it needs structure. While that may seem counter-intuitive (Shouldn’t creativity be “free?” All anything-goes?), structure is key when es to helping people e visionaries.

Jennifer Mueller, a professor at the University of San Diego, stresses the importance of structure:

There is this impression that: Give students freedom and they’ll be creative. And what we know is that they need some structure up front,” says Mueller.

They need a well-defined problem — like building a piece of furniture — and they need to know the constraints and the range of possibilities.

That echoes something Whitney said: “You start with a stick. And they’ve never started with a stick before. And the next thing you know you’re making decisions.”

At that point, he says, the student doesn’t even know the possibiliites.

“So that’s my job in a lot of ways, just to help people discover the possibilities. The potential of a stick of wood.”

My favorite teacher told me, in regards to writing, “First, you have to learn and follow the rules. Then you can break ’em.” That is exactly what is needed for creativity. Whether it’s learning how to code, paint, write, learn surgical techniques or do urban planning, creativity is key.

Artist Mako Fujimura ponders creativity and what it means to be Christian:

God is the Great Artist and Christ is the embodiment of humanity and divinity, fully human, fully divine, fully artist. William Blake said, “Jesus was the only artist who ever lived.” I agree with that. I think His artistry was about salvation, but it doesn’t end there, it begins there. His artistry not only brings us to a redeemed humanity and reconciled nature, but also to a new world and new Heaven. pletely changes the structure of the material universe that we know today. That’s the grand work of an artist.

Turns out, that’s the grand work of not just artists, but all humanity.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Why economic exchange need not be a zero-sum game
Note:This article is part of the ‘Principles Project,’ a list of principles, axioms, and beliefs that undergirda Christian view of economics, liberty, and virtue. Clickhereto read the introduction and other posts in this series. The Principle: #9B – Wealth is created when human beings creatively transform matter into resources. Because human beings can create wealth, economic exchange need not be a zero-sum game. (NB: This is a subset of the Acton Core Principle of Creation of Wealth) The Definitions: This...
Lord Acton vs. the ‘New Socialists’ on Freedom
‘Lord Acton’ Public Domain Corey Robin, professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate Center, wrote an interesting and troubling piece last week in the New York Times titled, “The New Socialists: Why the pitch from Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders resonates in 2018.” It is part chronicle of the recent rise of self-identified socialist politicians in the United States and part meditation on what people in 2018 mean when they talk about socialism....
The church that lives by the State shall die by the State
In all the articles about last week’s 50th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Prague, few took note of one of its enduring scars: widespread and ubiquitous atheism. Some may be surprised to learn that the Czech people are the most irreligious people in Europe, not just because of decades of government-sponsored atheism, but because of centuries of government-enforced religion. When Communist officials first came to power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, undermining and eradicating religion became a top priority. The...
Conquering famine: 3 reasons global hunger is on the decline
In confronting the problem of global hunger, Western activists, planners, and foreign aid “experts” are prone to look only toward various forms of economic redistribution. Even among nonprofits, churches, and missions organizations, we see an overly narrow focus on temporary needs and material donations with little attention to individual empowerment and institutional reforms. Meanwhile, global poverty and hunger are on the decline—a development driven not by top-level tweaks and materialistic trickery, but by a bottom-up revolution of freedom, innovation, and...
Why financial intermediaries fail
Note: This is post #91 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Financial intermediaries serve as a bridge between borrowers and savers. When those bridges collapse the effects can be disastrous: businesses go bankrupt, workers get laid off, and people lose their homes. These negative effects show you how crucial intermediaries are to our lives. What exactly causes financial intermediaries to fail? In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Tyler Cowen looks at four reasons: insecure property rights,...
The arts of liberty: Education for image bearers
In the United States, there is a constant background critique of education. Complaints include the following: Teachers are too liberal. Professors are too abstract. Schools don’t do a good job of preparing students for work. Education costs too much, both for governments and the parents and students paying tuition. Yet despite all the dissatisfaction, we value education highly. When we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that an educated public brings with it all kinds of benefits. It is tremendously...
The lasting relevance of Wilhelm Röpke
The 20th century is considered one of the deadliest centuries in history. Collectivism and consolidation of power took flight, resulting in some of the most atrocious violations of human rights the world has ever witnessed. One economist was instrumental in analyzing the cause of such atrocities while offering an antidote to the worldviews in which they were rooted, in hopes that we might not once again be lured by similar false promises of socialism. Published in 1958 and later translated...
John McCain, the Hanoi Hilton, and public virtue
“Sen. John McCain, who passed away on Saturday, is undeniably the most famous prisoner of war held captive and tortured by the North Vietnamese,” says Ray Nothstine in this week’s Acton Commentary. “McCain was one of 591 Americans returned by North Vietnam over several months during ‘Operation ing’ in 1973. But in our current politicized era, McCain’s fame somewhat overshadows the leadership and lessons of many other great Americans tortured by their Marxist captors.” McCain often praised fellow prisoners as...
Why Adam Smith is the self-help guru you didn’t know you needed
The Book: How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness by Russ Roberts The Gist: Roberts, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, explains the ideas behind Adam’s Smith’s forgotten classic, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. The Quote: “[Smith’s] view of what we truly want, of what really makes us happy, cuts to the core of things. It takes him only twelve words to get to the heart of the matter: ‘Man...
The power of story in the economic imagination
In his 1958 essay,“I, Pencil,”Leonard Read took up the voice of a self-reflective pencil to tell a fictional tale that illuminated the nonfictional marvels of mundane economic cooperation. The essay went on to influence the hearts and minds of many, thanks in part to Read’s insightful mind, but also to his chosen medium:the story. “You may wonder why I should write a genealogy,” the pencil says. “Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved