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Show page 10 Spring 2004 Jill Paterson demonstrates a routine to her class. doesn't mean it's not there." To be creative, is to possess "the ability to be fluid and to move from one mode of expression to another." The key to creativity, she explained, is "to be open to the process," in part by "not being limited to that laundry list in your head." Like Professor White, Professor McMurtry in engineering also feels that creativity is innate, but that it dwindles over time and so must be relearned. McMurtry believes, "Creativity is a quality - or a faculty - that all of us possess to some degree, and we can all expand our creative potential." From a young age, we are "taught to follow guidelines." Much of the homework we are given consists largely of memorization and the ability to duplicate problems. For McMurtry, "there's no creativity involved in memorization, or in seeing a problem in a book and being able to duplicate it." In order to be creative and to solve problems, "you've got to be willing to embarrass yourself," said McMurtry. You've got to start, he said, "by wiping out preconceptions and by starting wild - eliminating no options. You've got to be willing to put yourself in that space that is not quite comfortable. Once you've entered that realm of discomfort, then I think you're on your way to something." Jenn Gibbs compares giving in to the creative process to disco dancing. "You've got to let it rip and get into the music, and a sort of grace will appear. There will be constraints - you can see them as painful limitations, or as part of the material which helps determine the product." Gibbs says that those who are self-conscious when they dance - those who hold back, will most often "look as stupid as they feel." Whereas, if people let go, "they may look stupid, but at least they're having a good time - and chances are that a certain grace will emerge." Professor Fred Montague, director of undergraduate advising in biology, echoes what professors in other departments have said about creativity. To be creative, "You must get out of the catalogue of your mind. You have to play. You can't be driven by somebody else's agenda. You've got to give yourself permission to make mistakes." How can professors on campus create opportunities for students to enhance their creative potential and to help foster creativity? There are various ways that professors implement creativity in their classrooms. In his Global Issues class, Professor Montague encourages, but does not require students to bring harmonicas to class and to learn how to play them. The students play music at the beginning of class "to help them turn off the left side of their brains." Professor Montague and his students also maintain a community garden at the Sill Center. The garden, Professor Montague says, not only teaches students ecology skills, but it provides food for the food bank, and "empowers students to know that a small group of [them] can make a difference." "My job is two-fold," he says. "My first job is to get students turned on to the popular literature that teaches biological ecology, [and] my second job is to get students to see the processes that make the world work." Professor Montague wants "to get students to make connections." Montague believes that he has to let his class know what the facts are, "but I also need to let students know that they can't be paralyzed by those facts." Jenn Gibbs sees herself more as a "facilitator" for creativity than as a teacher. "I see myself more as not teaching creativity, but rather as encouraging students to exercise that faculty," said Gibbs. She believes she is "a facilitator of [students'] personal |
