Creativity Blockers - School

What is your abiding memory of school?  One of Paul's is the unfairness of a question which he got wrong in a test. "Our class was working on a small trial, a test in preparation of major IQ test.  One of the questions was

Which was the odd one out - a table, a chair, a stool or a cat ?

Not surprisingly, my answer was a cat because the rest were inanimate piece of furniture.  The 'right' answer was stool because it has three legs.  I explained my thinking but I was still wrong.

I was furious that the arbitrary decision of someone who was not bright enough to see the ambiguity in the question should mean that I was classified as having a lower IQ than I was otherwise have been.

That's how school is.  In most cases that is a right answer to a question and the job of the class is to guess what is in teacher's mind in order to be correct.

In  fairness, that is how it has be.  It would be impossible to manage large class of children (or even the smaller one) and allow full freedom to be totally creative.  Think now of the training that this gives us and our children.  There is a right answer  and your job is to find one. Once you have found it, you have succeeded.  The best answer may be the second, third or fourth.  School teaches us that these do not exists.  Having found the right answer, we stop and move on the next problem.

The other overriding lesson we take from school is conformity.  The good kids do what they are told and bad kids do not.  If you wish to do well in school you need to be a good kid.  Bye Bye creativity.

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Creative Blockers - It's not logical

The problem with logic is that it works only as well as the initial premises which frame the problem.  If the question is asked in a wrong way then no amount of logic will find the best answer.

Experience will lead us to frame questions in a particular way.  This is the same experience which has made it difficult for us to find solution in the first place.  In order to find a creative solution we must start outside the limitation of logic and only once when we have moved into a new area, work our way back.

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--------------------------------------------------------------Positive Thinking

Two salesmen who visited an underdeveloped country.

One emailed his office " NO PROSPECT OF SALES BECAUSE NOBODY WEARS SHOES HERE"

The other emailed his office. "SEND STOCK IMMEDIATELY. INHABITANTS BAREFOOTED. DESPERATELY NEEDED SHOES."

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