Run Dem Crew Week 3: Creativity and Lateral Thinking
Perhaps the single greatest problem facing schools and education today isn’t cuts, underfunding or the constant intervention by curriculum editors who think they know all. No not just this..
You see, education in its rawest form is all about the extraction of information. The reality in schools though, is quite the contrary. Yes, the reality is that through schools’ ambitious and often irrational efforts to chase grades and create socially worthy scholars (that they often later claim credit for), there exists a suppression and denial of a young person’s inner needs and knowledge of self. Youngsters who opt for assertive are often perceived as aggressive. Meanwhile the kids who challenge the syllabus, are often perceived as the teacher’s challenges themselves. The result: A generation of young people that grow with a reluctance to express themselves, be confident, and have self-belief in their capabilities.
Quite aptly, RDCY (Run Dem Crew Youngers), Week 3 was a session on creativity, led by Charlie Dark, and assisted by Mark Gurney and Muireann Carey-Campbell AKA “Bangs”.
“If I say to my youngest aged 4 to create me the name of a shoe, he’d instantly return a string of the ideas going through his mind. Meanwhile, my older girl would take the time to filter out these ideas returning the ones she thinks best!”
Charlie’s point drives home pretty fast. As he sets us a similar task – design a shoe – I find myself thinking up all the endless possibilities, from ethical, to the down right out of this world that I have no realistic concept of! In the end, I produce some just-about wearable sneaker in which I have the futile hope of impressing the class today, (and quite likely too, the wider network in my head). As we show and tell, on the whole, turn by turn we justify the crap we’ve conceived!
“Ideas are never bad” Charlie insists, reinforcing that such notion is an aspect of school, to be forgotten. In truth, as we discovered in Week 1, most ideas begin with ‘side ideas’, being born out of a range of mental processes. As Charlie argues, we learnt though to sift for the widely desirable returns, almost in an attempt to ingratiate ourselves with society, and not vice versa.
Intriguingly, we learn about Frank Rudy, who conceived the revolutionary Air Sole technology after being inspired by French architecture. Closely linked meanwhile, Bill Bowerman co-founder of Nike, created the ‘waffle sole’ design quite literally using his wife’s waffle maker!
It’s all about thinking differently, an attribute that is worthy of celebration, Charlie thinks. “When I look to the stretch of East Street Market, as a runner I see that as a great track space, perfect for training”.
Charlie reveals a few more tips including using the net to find out how other’s minds are thinking, and other creative enhancers. For example, the utilising of coloured paper, over plain paper, stimulates brain activity and creativity in turn! A further invaluable tip to lateral thinking: “Set yourself a regular challenge to discover something new in your surroundings”.
This week I took up Charlie’s challenge and discovered an underused promotion tool on my bike saddle; a convincing extension to my room simply by covering empty wall space with a mirror; and an entire blank canvass on my ceiling!
Creativity is all about unrestriction. In fact, somewhat inspired by a chat with David G. , I'll coin a phrase - creativity is what happens when free thought becomes superfluous; and I guess you could say potential is what happens when creativity is accommodated.
Before closing the session, Charlie stresses the importance of thinking as well as being, different. Ultimately, we stumble back on familiar territory: this all comes down to having self-belief that school hasn’t quite taught, and so needs learning fast.
Nonetheless, as we face up to the reality of increasing competition, the underlining question is what makes you different? It is a question that becomes ever the more relevant as we compete to share our ideas in a class like this; but also as we compete to share ourselves in wider society. Whatever the answer to this question may be, confidently take it, and hone it into greatness.
****Some recommended reading from this week, available cheaply: Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” and “Outliers: The Story of Success”.
