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‘For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. What went wrong – and how we can fix it.’

Great article in Newsweek. Read it here.

I have my own take, which has to do with how difficult it actually is to be creative. How society does its best to discourage and strip creativity from us so we can be good worker bees. Sit down, shut up and do your job.

what is creativity
As the article mentions: ‘To be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result).’

Today, divergent thinking is often discouraged – but if it does take place, it can be so divergent, it can’t be implemented as a convergent – or coherent – plan.

And at the college level, I’m at ground zero teaching this stuff.

Sometimes it creates wonders, sometimes it only goes halfway. Other times, it’s so frightening to attempt something new  . . .  creativity finds itself at a standstill. The work veers back into mediocrity. Because that’s safe.

Pictured above: The incredible work of Graham Roumieu, visit his portfolio site here. Twas more creative than the trite crayon flag that came with the Newsweek article. Found via swissmiss. Article found via Adam Helweh.

tags: art, cool finds, design, education, thoughts // 1 comment  . . .