"Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself."
George Bernard Shaw
For what I hope is an obvious reason, this quote made me think a lot about the creativity aspect of our class, but also about a blog post I wrote earlier this year. In this previous post, I considered the idea that education stifles creativity, that we lose creative ability because it is not actively used during school. However, this quote made me reconsider the idea all together. Maybe it's not so much that we've lost it, just that we mask it- call it something else- and forget that we have the ability to use it.
When I was younger, I was taught in school that being creative is a way to distinguish and set yourself apart from others. In terms of school, this meant thinking outside the box and coming up with individual ideas and projects. But by time I had reached seventh or eighth grade, this creative way of thinking wasn't valued so highly, and success in school was focused more on the output rather than the path taken to get there. In my previous blog post, this is what led me to believe that schooling forces us to lose our ability to be creative. However, I failed to realize that creativity is necessary beyond a schooling environment and that it is the fundamental of individuality.
When I was younger, I was taught in school that being creative is a way to distinguish and set yourself apart from others. In terms of school, this meant thinking outside the box and coming up with individual ideas and projects. But by time I had reached seventh or eighth grade, this creative way of thinking wasn't valued so highly, and success in school was focused more on the output rather than the path taken to get there. In my previous blog post, this is what led me to believe that schooling forces us to lose our ability to be creative. However, I failed to realize that creativity is necessary beyond a schooling environment and that it is the fundamental of individuality.
The quote by George Bernard Shaw says that "life is not about finding yourself." "Finding yourself" implies that who you are yet to become already exists, you just have to look for it. Like George Bernard Shaw, I would argue that this is inaccurate because you do not already exist, not until you create who you want to be. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I was wrong in my other blog post. We can't lose our ability to be creative because we use it all the time. We are creativity in it's purest form.
In my personal opinion, our American Studies reflects life in the sense that neither are possible without creativity. What do you think about this quote? Is creativity a fundamental of life, or does it just a skill that has the ability to be lost?
1 comment:
I agree that we have to create ourselves rather than "find" ourselves as if we already exist somewhere in the future. I don't think I would classify creativity as a fundamental of life OR simply a skill. I think it is somewhere in the middle.
I think everyone has the potential to be creative so I think that is something that could be present in everyone if people knew how to express their creativity. However, it is not always easy to show one's creativity, and it can be stifled by certain styles of teaching. Therefore, it is somewhat of a crossover of the two.
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