Creativity: What Are Our Kids Learning?

The major problem with our culture is the lack of a classical education and the ingestion of accelerent drugs. There. I’ve said it. Accelerent drugs is a term I made up. I’m talking about everything that revs us up too soon and too fast, from speed to diet pills to coffee or sugar–whatever makes you angry, roadrageous, and mean. When we are any of those things, we cannot learn.

Our future depends on learning.
A long time ago, education’s purpose was to show children that other people thought differently, behaved differently, and spoke differently. The purpose was not to extol one’s own culture, but to learn how to work in coalition with others. How to get along with others who don’t think like we do.

Once the industrial revolution hit, education branched off into vocational training–for those whose lives were to be spent in factories and at machine trades, and the upper classes, who studied languages and philosophy to learn how to think.

Somewhere in the 1960s, we hit a roadblock. If a subject didn’t have an immediate practical application, it was frowned upon. That quickly led to a “path” of learning. By seventh grade you were on the college track or on the vocational track, and you took courses accordingly.

And now we are paying for it. Children aren’t going to school, they are going to test-preparation classes. We aren’t teaching them how to think, or even what to think, we are teaching them to pass a test so schools can look like they are doing their job, which seems to be taking knives and guns away from armed kids.

We are way beyond “no child left behind,” what we are doing is leaving a nation behind.

Right from the beginning, we are training creativity out of our children. We want them to color in the lines, and make sure the sky is blue, please. We teach them that there is only one right answer to every question. We take away the arts, music, dance, and replace them with organized sports that don’t allow for individual creativity, but praise competition and winning. Our educational system today is not appropriate for the 21st century. It is narrow, destructive of creativity and human potential, and squashes the one thing that will bring us safely into the future: original ideas that are practical and work. In a word, creativity.

Everyone is born creative. To paraphrase Picasso, the problem is not in creative children, it’s in remaining creative as we grow up. Instead of asking, “Is this the only answer?” we ask “Is this the answer that we need to know for the test?”

When a teacher is explaining something, the best result would be “Huh. That’s interesting. Wonder what would happen if. . .” Instead, the question at the end of a raised hand is, “Will that be on the test?”

Wally Olins, Founder, Wolff-Olins says, “Competitive advantage does not come from the Internet. It comes from leveraging creativity. ” Maybe it’s time we remembered what education means. It comes from the Latin and means “to bring out of” and not “to stuff into.”

For a great take on creativity and education, watch Sir Ken Robinson’s talk on education. It’s not only bright, it’s very funny.

–Image: www.brown.edu

–Quinn McDonald had a classical education and thinks she’s still creative because of it. That, and she isn’t afraid of making mistakes. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

Mother’s Day Gift for Artist Mom

If your mom is an artist, or likes doodling, this gift will be just right for Mother’s Day. Buy (or make) a flower pot with an inspiring phrase on it. This one says “thrive,” which is great for both the plants and mom.

You’ll need:
Terra-cotta flower pot, about 4-inch diameter, with base
A 1-lb bag of rice or beans, in any color
A small piece of plastic wrap
Masking tape
Colored paper. I used Mei-teintes for color-fastness
5 Prismacolor pencils, unsharpened
5 pink pencil-top erasers
Scissors

Line the pot with plastic wrap to keep the beans in the pot and not sliding out the drainage hole. Fill the pot with (uncooked) beans or rice. Beans are less messy. Pinto beans (as shown) give a nice variegated look.

Buy several colored pencils, watercolor pencils, pastel pencils–whatever Mom uses most. The picture shows Prismacolor pencils in various shades of green to make the stems more believable. Buy the pink pencil-top erasers you used in grade-school, too.

Put the erasers on the end of the pencil that doesn’t have the SKU barcode printed on it. Sink the end with the barcode into the pot, hiding it.

Cut pointy ovals from colored paper. I cut them freehand, they don’t need to be perfect. In fact, slightly different sizes and shapes give them a realistic look. If you are ambitious, cut out green ovals that are smaller and skinnier than the petal ovals.

Cut a strip of masking tape (about 3 inches) in half lengthwise. (It comes in different widths, but can easily be cut to fit) about the width of the eraser edge. Holding a leaf against the eraser, press the tape over it. Alternate colors, or, if you are using green for the sepals, alternate those. Keep the tape tight, but don’t overwork this. It takes a bit of patience, but it’s not hard.

Continue around the eraser till you have attached four or six petals. You can use any number, but simpler is better.

Repeat with all the other pencils and tuck pretty tissue around the pot, tuck in a box or bag.

–Image and tutorial by Quinn McDonald. Quinn is a certified creativity coach and artist. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

10 Questions to Ask Your Coach

You’ve decided to work with a coach for the usual reasons: you aren’t getting enough done, you spend a lot of time worrying, you are repeating all the same patterns, you are unhappy with your life, you aren’t getting promoted, there is trouble on your team, you aren’t managing your life, your boss or your colleagues well, you don’t know what to do next.

You’ve found some names, now how to decide? Asking questions is good. What to ask? Here are some ideas to build on:

Q. “Do you coach on the phone, in person, or via email?”
A. In person gives you face to face contact, but it also means you need to drive, park, walk there and back. You may have to use time looking for a parking space or pay to park.

Phone coaching can fit into parts of your day that work best for you–early morning, lunch, evening when you have some time. If your coach does phone coaching, ask if they were trained that way. It takes a special skill.

Email coaching is tricky. You might feel emotional when you write, then be in a completely different mood when the answer comes back. When a coach asks a question, you may write back what the coach wants to hear, rather than what you feel. Email coaching is the least reliable. Email is great for coaching homework or reporting in, but not for the heart of coaching.

Q: “Where did you train?”
A: Some people have been coaching for a long time and never went to a course. But a recognized coaching course gives you some reassurance that there were principles learned, practiced and tested. Therapists often become coaches, although coaches are not therapists, unless they have studies and been licensed to be a therapist. In general, therapists look backward for the origin of problems, and coaches look forward to goals.

Q: “How long have you been coaching regularly?”
A: It’s good to know if someone has just started. That doesn’t mean they aren’t gifted, but experience is an excellent skill-builder. And coaching regularly is the key. A coach who has taken a three-year sabbatical may not be at the top of the skill.

Q: “How many times a month do we talk and for how long?”
A: This varies widely and you need to be comfortable with the commitment. Some coaching sessions run for half an hour, some for an hour. Some coaching sessions are 4 times a month, some three, some at random intervals. Choose a coach whose working sessions make sense to you. Ask why they chose their session length and frequency. The answer should have the voice of experience.

Q: “How much do you charge?”
A: A coach who hedges on the answer, or gives an unclear answer is one you should avoid. Prices should be clear, easy to understand and explain. I favor coaches who put their price on their website. No reason to hide it, fees are either affordable for your client, or not. The client determines the value. If my grocery store didn’t post their prices in the paper, or I had to search for airline prices, I wouldn’t use them.

Q: “How long will it take?”
A: No coach can tell you how long it will take to make a change in your life. It depends on how hard you work, and what you want to achieve. Change takes time. Once you have achieved a goal, you might very well want to move on to another goal with the same coach. Some people find that a good coach is a necessity and stay for years, other clients go for a quick fix and stay for a few months, a few clients just check in once a month or so after coaching ends.

Q: “Do you give homework?”:
A: Coaches frequently ask powerful questions at the end of a session. Other times, you may agree with the coach to complete a task, start a project, write down some notes. Coaching is most effective between sessions, when your mind returns to the session and builds on it. Having a focal point to build on is a big advantage.

Q: Do you give sample sessions?
A: Coaching is personal and experiential. It’s hard to describe it using only words, just like it is hard to explain an ice cream flavor. Once you taste it, you understand how the ice cream tastes to you. Many coaches give a sample session to let you see their style, approach and tone. Not every coach will work for you, and no coach should discourage you from trying more than one before making a decision.

Q: Will you get my book published/ find me a soul mate/ get my family off my back?
A: No. Sorry, you have to do the work. A coach supports you, shows you different perspectives, discusses consequences, shows you options, asks what you need to complete a task, helps you see the steps in a task, supports you, encourages you, demands the best from you, makes you accountable, and asks questions, helps you think about resources, maybe even shares resources. But no advice. A life- or creativity coach that gives hard advice and instructions consistently isn’t helping you. If you are not coming up with your own ideas, you won’t be dedicated to them. If you don’t choose your own path, you will blame the coach. Part of coaching is learning to take responsibility for your life.

Q: “May I call or email you?”
A: Most coaches believe that you are creative, resourceful and whole when you begin coaching. If you need a therapist, that’s a different kind of help. Many coaches offer email exchanges for homework or brief check-ins. How often you call without getting charged is up to the coach and you to set. Boundaries are important to keep the relationship in balance. If you and your coach become close friends, the coach may have a hard time keeping your goal in perspective. Most coaches don’t mind a quick phone call or email during office hours. Be careful about making demands on how fast you expect an answer, and the hours a coach is available. Coaches need their downtime, too.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and a life coach who helps with transitions in business, career, and family matters. She can be reached at QuinnCreative.com

Trouble with “previous” and “next”

WordPress does it, and so does Yahoo. So I’ll have to adjust. It’s counterintuitive for me, though, and I think the people who live in this time warp are not using a Mac, and live in a non-time-based world.

Here’s what I’m talking about: When I’m moving through posts and emails, I think of “next” as those more recent than the page I am on, and “previous” as those earlier in time. So, for me, my next email will come soon, and my previous post was yesterday’s.

Not so with WordPress and Yahoo. If I have moved backwards into March’s posts, clicking on “next” moves me further back, into Februrary’s posts. Clicking on “previous” means the previous page, pushing me into the future, into April’s posts.

The reason, I suppose, is that “next” and “previous” don’t refer to the time the posts were written, but which page they are on. To me, this means that the coders, or IT developers are not thinking of how their audience uses the software, but how they see it. A programmer sees information on pages, and the placement of the pages themselves are important. Most users, I would guess, see the date and time they wrote it as important, or perhaps the content, which doesn’t come up as an issue at all.

If you are looking for a post, or a check, or a file on your computer, and you can’t use content as a locater, you will use the date you wrote it, often in conjunction with other dates or events.

“Let’s see, I wrote that right after I saw Atonement, but before we painted the kitchen,” is a time statement. I can’t imagine someone saying, “I stored that on the third page back from the beginning,” because that isn’t a set place. The more posts you add, the farther back the posts slip.

It’s an information design question, and the user-friendly ones will stay time-based. We can use the arrows to move to the last page seen, but “previous” should retain the meaning it’s always had–”before this moment in time.”

Image: book, “The Caldendar” from www.ephemeris.com

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008, Quinn McDonald All rights reserved.

Goodbye, Martha

She was beyond old, and a little deaf. She had grown tired of the cold in Illinois and come to Arizona to warm up. She was a night owl, I could hear her TV when I walked past her apartment on the way to the laundry room.

One day, hearing the radio alarm on when I passed her apartment, I wondered why the alarm was ringing in the middle of the afternoon. I picked up my mail at the communal boxes, and heard the alarm on my way back. I knocked on her door. Nothing. I knocked harder. She came to the door, and looked at me smiling.
“It’s good to have youngsters in this place,” she said. I smiled back, it’s been many years since I could have been a youngster, but to her, I was.
“Your radio alarm is ringing,” I said, “so I came to check on you.”
“It is?” she said, “Well, I wonder what it wants.”
I turned it off for her, and chatted for a few minutes.

She asked about the canning jar that sits by the bougainvillea shrubs during the daytime. I explained that it contained a solar battery that charged in the sun, then the jar glowed at night, and I used it to cheer me up in the dark.
“We all need one of those,” she said, “Something that soaks up sun in the day.”
In March, she began to make plans to return to the East.
“I can’t manage by myself anymore,” she said, “so I’m going back to the cold.”
She gave me her ironing board and iron, and I planned on giving her the canning jar, so she could take some Arizona sunshine back with her.
Yesterday, she sat down in her apartment and died of an aneurism. She won’t have to go back to the cold. She won’t have to endure the broiler-heat of July here. I hope that wherever she goes, her generous and cheerful spirit will be happy, and that she will have a bit of Light to enjoy.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. She lives in Mesa, AZ. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) Quinn McDonald, 2008 All rights reserved.

Making Art That Heals

I’ve made art to make money and I’ve made art to make meaning. I’ve made art to have fun. Most people make art under “normal” circumstances like that. But lately, I’ve run into people who are making art for many different reasons. They are making art:–for pleasure, to express a special event
–to get them through a crisis, either emotional or physical
–to get through another creative block, like a writing block
–in deep grief, seeking relief from mental and physical pain and suffering
–in confusion, to find a path to begin a new path on the Journey

When these art-makers are my coaching clients, I try to help them dig deeply and find old memories, put to new use. We find out what makes them want to change, how they will change, where the new path is taking them. Sometimes all they can do is write down memories and leave it at that. Sometimes, in writing, they start to see a new path, and it looks safe to try out for a walk.

The answers lead in many different directions, but the one that interests me the most is the immediate art. The desire is always there to make “something important,” or “something meaningful.” But the healing path is often just a way to make “something.” Anything. Working on a piece of paper, whether it is writing or drawing, origami or writing music is healing.

Pouring emotions on paper lets you both capture the emotion and release it. Grab a strong emotion and wrestle it down on paper. Your feelings will pour out, you will release them and they will allow you to heal.

If you are fearful or worried about those emotions, scared to name them or face them, pick a time to work when you are tired. Exactly the time you normally wouldn’t do creative work. Begin. The rest will take care of itself.

–Image: J. Sandquist, Art Heals

–Quinn McDonald is a life and creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Layering Colors

It was my first night in colored pencil class. This sounds a bit like coloring class for grown-ups. The lesson was drawing an apple. As I looked at the apple in front of me, I noticed it was irregular and had an interesting stem–and that made for a great outline drawing.

The lesson was to apply color from light to dark, so the first step was to cover the inside of the drawing with a nicely applied layer of cream. You dont’ want a lot of white spots on the paper. A layer of a light color modifies the image nicely.

As I applied layer after layer, it occurred to me how complicated the outside of an apple is. And how easy it is to make the apple look three -dimensional with the addition of a darker color. And how the highlight, where the ceiling light shines off the peel, is not really white, but reflective.

While I sat an applied color, I learned that a wash of yellow over the curve in the front brightens the entire image. That using the opposite of the red color of the apple–green–makes the shadows look deeper. That another layer of color can change the color entirely.

And I smiled because this sounded more like a life lesson than an art lesson. That steadily applying a cheerful face to life makes you more cheerful. That knowing the opposites in life–happiness and sorrow, failure and success, patience and impetuousness–adds richness to the texture of life. And that adding another perspective can change your outlook. Not only that, but that a lot of work and a willingness to keep layering color makes for a better depth of experience.

When I was done, I had used 15 colors on the apple. It had taken two hours. And I know that if I show it to someone, they’ll shrug and say, “Well, what will you DO with that? Can you sell it?” And I’ll smile and say, “It’s art,” and think, “Just like life.”

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com  Apple drawing by Quinn McDonald. (c) 2008 All rights reservd.

Flashlight Walk

Full moon was a few nights ago, so the moon comes up, orange as a copper penny, around 7:4 p.m. Spring is here, complete with nature flying her freak flag–with the ripe bitter oranges that look full and juicy but are filled with mouth-puckering, sour juice and pulp. Or with trees that have sprouted out both above and below the graft, two different kinds of the same tree blooming on one stem.

On Spring days there are endless activities to try in Phoenix. Like the frantic activity in Fall on the East Coast, before winter slush and depression set in, our Spring is packed with the activities that in July and August, we will not pursue. It will be too hot to cross a parking lot, much less hike, walk through gardens, or climb the local mountains.

So when I read about the flashlight walk through the San Tan Mountains south of Queen Creek, I had to try it. I thought I might be the only person to show up. After all, hiking in the dark, with a flashlight if the moon isn’t bright enough, didn’t seem like it would have a lot of appeal to TV nation. I was wrong. About 50 people showed up, some with lights clipped to the visors of their caps.

The sun set, leaving a nice turquoise light in the West and a spreading indigo sky in the East. The group struck out, a bit vigorously for my abilities.  We were a mixed group, families, a few dogs, and couples. Many people had walking sicks or trekking poles. The first half mile we hiked in granite ground down to a sand-like consistency. It was like walking on the beach. Then the trail headed up, directly up into the stars. The mountains were silhouetted around us, and one by one the constellations appearing in the sky. Orion, the two dippers, the seven sisters. No Milky Way, though. Phoenix has too much light pollution.

I began to drop back, not being able to keep up the pace. My flashlight came out, because the trail turned into sheets of stone, and it was hard to find footing. You don’t want to stumble off the trail into a cholla cactus. It will break off a piece and go with you, carried along in your jeans or skin on 3-inch spikes.

As people passed me, the trail ahead was dotted with moving lights as people used them to check out the terrain, then turned them off to have the moon light the way. Halfway through, we stopped to let people who were tired or didn’t want to take the steeper part of the trail turn back. I decided to stay, but next time, I’m taking a stick.

The 3-plus mile walk was worthwhile and interesting. I worried too much about my footing on the top half of the walk to call it fun, but it is an experience I’ve never had before, and one worth doing before it gets too hot.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and a beginning hiker. Tomorrow she goes shopping for some decent hiking boots, sneakers aren’t sturdy enough for hiking up mountains. (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

New Colors for Phoenix

When I moved out here, I brought a few art supplies with me. I chose simple supplies that did a lot but didn’t take up space–colored pencils, kneaded eraser, bone folder, a blade.

Prismacolor pencils are wonderful–rich and easy to use, waxy, thick color. The more you layer, the richer it gets. When I arrived in Phoenix, I had many greens, yellows, oranges, blues.

But here, I needed different colors. Richer grays, shades of browns, purples. They are the colors of blue agaves, rock walls, and the big smooth stones that create the look of water, but in rock. I saw a fence that was designed to hold rocks vertically and still look like a river.

These big, smooth river rocks are different from the desert granite, warm and cool grays and thunderstorm colored ones, too. Desert granite is hard brown and pink, all new colors I needed.

The browns of shadows and rust and granite. It took 16 more pencils in all to catch all the new colors here. Just waiting to be seen and put on paper.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer, trainer and artist who teaches writing and visual journaling classes. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2008 All rights reserved.

Another Idea About Slow Art

Slow Art: (noun) the visible or auditory result of creativity; the original work of art created by a person without assembling kits through instructions. Kit parts or kits assembled in a way not originally intended (the kind of re-assembly that violates warranties) count as slow art. Used first by Quinn McDonald, who took the idea of Slow Food (the opposite of fast food, and meant to apply to food grown locally, cooked in simple ways that are both nourishing and enjoyable) into the creative world of the imagination.

I’ve written about the value of slow art before. More than once. The idea has moved beyond art and into general creativity. Inspired by Do-It-Yourself channels, the imagination has taken creativity into the most interesting corners.

Perhaps the digital world is not as satisfying as we hoped. In the 1960s, visions of the future included lives with computers that did all the work, while people enjoyed far more leisure. But we don’t have leisure anymore. The 40-hour work week is non-existent; we stay at the office longer and longer to prove our “passion” for our work. When we leave, we beg to have our lives interrupted via phones, beepers, Blackberries, and computer cameras. We love being available at work.

And a certain contingent is rebelling against the organization that everything is virtual. The artists who delight in Slow Art want independence from digital compliance. So they hack and mock their way into a new world of creativity.

Instructables.com defines itself as the “world’s biggest show and tell.” You can learn how to draw (analog or digital), bake bread, get a tree planted on your block in San Francisco, or create a spill-proof tray for your Honda Odyssey. This is original work by people who want to let others know an easier, better, or more interesting way to live their life.

If you are a bit geekier, you can go over to makezine.com, which will show you how to make a Minthesizer– is a low voltage, low power, analog synthesizer. If you are a low-level geek, there is an article for a foolproof way to open a bottle of wine. My favorite is the crossover from PDA to altered art–a hardback book turned into a “laptop PDA” by a combination of art and hack.

Hackzine reclaims the word hacker for the good guys by bringing the technorati together in the blogosphere to improve technological devices. Sure you can run Linnux apps in Windows, but I’m really interested in drawing holograms by hand.

My mood is lifting. Art and the imagination are not dead. It’s simply moved into the streets as a pick-up game of mental play, where mixed media gets a whole new meaning and anything original can be improved on. It’s a wonderful next step into the magical realm of Slow Art where originality counts more than price, and sharing information is part of the joy.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and artist who values Slow Art. See her work at QuinnCreative.com