Creativity and Interdisciplinary Studies

As we look around at the rapidly changing world, it becomes somewhat overwhelming to discover all the new things on the horizon. Humans are intensely creative and innovative, and we are perpetually shaping and reshaping our world.

What we know about the future is that it is unpredictable and uncertain, and given that education is ideally meant to prepare students for the future, the only thing we can do with any degree of confidence is to equip our students with the resources necessary to adapt to novelty and change. The goal of an IDS education is to cultivate adaptive creativity so that students are able push the future in positive directions.

In his talk, Ken Robinson states that “creativity now is as important now as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.”

Traditionally, education has been designed to meet the needs of industrialism. The construction of a formal education system was a means of producing the types of workers that were needed for a new world of manufacturing. The Western world in particular needed people who would learn the rules and follow the rules as armies of people were trained to engage in repetitive work such as was demanded in the manufacturing jobs of the time. Now, this rendition of education history is much too simplistic to accurately capture the full range of its development, but the basic point still stands as Robinson describes it, I believe.

Philosopher Michel Foucault described the traditional school system as a technology of power, a disciplinary apparatus that sought to eradicate individuality in order to achieve uniformity and conformity. Our schools have traditionally taken this approach: everyone learns the same things in the same way and is evaluated by whether or not they get the ‘right’ answer.

The same concept and structure has been extended to the university as people within a specific discipline or area of study have traditionally been expected to learn a set academic canon, become competent in the disciplinary shoptalk, so to speak, and use the same ways of thinking about the specific phenomena that the discipline studies.

Chemists deal with chemistry, and psychologists deal with thinking, and the two often go about their work with little interaction. It’s not until we come across a problem such as addiction that suddenly it becomes apparent that neither area is able to address this problem effectively but both areas are relevant: addiction is related to thinking, and thinking is related to the chemistry of the brain.

Now it would be a mistake to paint the entire education system as entirely ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’. There is much to be said about everyone learning to read and add; it’s undoubtedly a good thing for society—for democracy, justice, and so on. But, it is not sufficient. At least not any longer.

So, how do we begin to unlearn our aversion to creativity, as Robinson suggests?

Things that are relevant to this are:

1. We need to learn to look at things from lots of perspective

2. We need to learn to utilize insights and ideas from these perspectives, and put ideas together even when (or specifically when) they don’t typically go together (someone somewhere came up with the idea that a good way to address the issue of addiction was with knowledge from both chemistry and psychology. I’d bet that the first person to suggest this was laughed out of the room.)

3. We need to learn to just go for it…give it a go and see what happens…just like the kid in the nativity story in this video.

4. We have to learn to be willing to be wrong.

As Robinson says: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original.”

Now, a large part of this last element is on me and other educators. We have come through a system in which mistakes come with a high price—if you get it wrong you fail the test, lose the scholarship, don’t get your degree, don’t get a good job…and so on and so forth. Interdisciplinary studies is about changing the way we do knowledge and education. My commitment to you is to work diligently to create a space where you are rewarded for giving it a go, not for getting it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Where you can unlearn the discipline of the traditional schooling and relocate that child in all of us, a space that focuses on creativity not conformity…because I believe that this is how we do good in the world and best prepares us to meet the demands of the contemporary world.

So, what does creativity really look like?

Creativity comes in when we transgress given categories, go outside the given boundaries, and come up with something new.

But, I would say that creativity is not best characterized as simply thinking differently from most people--that assumes that most people are not creative thinkers, but that’s probably not true. And, it’s condescending. I think that it's possible for everyone to be a creative thinker by continually combining ideas and experiences. What is unique to individuals in not necessarily the way of thinking, but the way individuals experience the world: everyone is unique thus our experiences are unique thus they are a great source of creative knowledge. So, to be more creative you can seek out more experiences and new ideas as these provide the resources for creative thinking. You will always come up with something unique because no two people are the same.

Here are three practical ways you can add more creativity into you work/life:

1. Do something new—go to an event, ride the bus, learn to ski, learn a new language, have lunch in an unfamiliar part of town. Who knows what you’ll see, who you’ll meet or what you’ll discover.

2. Every assignment, paper, presentation, personal reflection and so on that you prepare in this course and every course is an opportunity for you to exercise your creativity:

a. Tell a story

b. Include images

c. Include outside resources (books, tv shows, YouTube, information from other courses, etc) when constructing your assignments, papers, or whatever

3. Challenge everything! Challenge directions: they are guidelines not laws. In my class, especially, I am looking for you to push back, challenge what I say, challenge what the authors of our texts say, give your opinions, and then challenge yourself. The more you challenge the more you push yourself to think in new ways.

4. Don’t just agree with everything and everyone. First, it makes for a boring read when I’m grading your assignments, but is also doesn’t allow you to push your own thinking and become more creative in your insights.

5. Let your imagination run wild. I mean this seriously…kind of seriously. Dream up answers or solutions: who cares if they’re not reasonable or practical. Use your imagination. Pretend you’re working on a sci fi script and the possibilities are only limited by what you can imagine. I think people are sometimes more scared that their idea is unrealistic than wrong, yet, how are we supposed to figure out what's possible without imagining the seemingly impossible? In philosophy there’s a thinking called thought experiments where we try to imagine ‘what if’ scenarios. Do this! It’s a highly creative tool.

6. Humor-lighten up. Include humor. It’s a great way to introduce new ways to see and think about things.

Creativity is living an interdisciplinary life. It’s not something you have to consciously do, I would argue. It’s our natural way of being in the world, but it's important to start consciously challenging those voices that keep you from stepping out, saying what want, and not embracing a fully creative self. I do believe that living a creative life, an interdisciplinary life is the foundation for doing good in the world.

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by Alex Knight - "I took this shot just after the fireworks had finished over Tokyo Bay. The smoke was clouding the city and creating some seriously amazing reflections. The blurry light trails in the bay are all the restaurant boats heading back to dock after the light show." • Ben White - "“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr. Seuss" • dylan nolte - "Just caught some interesting shape and composition on a commercial shoot of some swimmers. This was for the Nation Lottery which funded the Majority of the UK athletes and facilities for London 2012." • Alex Kondratiev - "untitled image" • RhondaK Native Florida Folk Artist - "untitled image" • Tra Nguyen - "Physics teacher" • Tim Mossholder - "Get in the Flow"