On Schooling and Creative Orientation
Three Quotes About Schooling, and an Introduction
”I wonder whether if I had an education I should have been more or less a fool than I am.” — Alice James
“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde
“What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.”
- Henry David Thoreau
We spend most of our good years in schools, are repeatedly told that schools prepare us for life, and spend an inordinate amount of resources finding ways to get our children into the best schools possible.
So why do so many thinkers and writers we admire disparage schooling?
What are we missing here?
What Schooling Prepares You For
We are taught in school that there is one right answer to any one question. We are given answer keys, numerical grades, rankings relative to our peers. We thus develop an aptitude for finding the right answers, along with techniques and strategies to dismiss the “wrong” ones. And there are many wrong ones.
It is a frame that we carry into the real world. We think that, much like school, there are right and wrong answers in real life. We act accordingly, keeping silent when we do not have the answers, feeling shame if we get things wrong.
And it works for the most part. But how long will it keep working? And what are its costs?
Responsive/Reactive vs Creative
A name for the frame that schooling offers us is responsive orientation.
With this frame, we see everything around us as problems with specific solutions. Our mission is to identify the type of problem we are faced with and find the correct answer to solve it. Once we get used to this orientation, we tend to stick to what we are good at, what we know (or, more likely, have been told) is good for us. We rarely consider what we want.
But there is an alternative frame we can apply to reality, a different way we can orient ourselves.
It is called the creative orientation.
With this frame, we first consider (truthfully) our current state, i.e. the skills and resources that we can offer. Then we ask what we truly want by visualising and describing it clearly. Once we know where we are and where we want to be, we systematically ask ourselves questions, structure our lives, and commit to actions that will bridge the gap. All that is left is to work hard, get into flow, and move ourselves incrementally toward our vision.
You can read more about these orientations here.
On Honesty and Authenticity
Comparing the two orientations forces us to confront the question: Are you being honest and authentic?
Often times, being responsive requires putting aside what you honestly want in order to find a solution to your problem. We may not like what we are doing but we know that it works. So we go with it, no matter how we or others may feel.
On the other hand, being creative places honesty above all else; we simply cannot create otherwise. If we cheat ourselves on where we are or what we want, we will inevitably be dragged back into a world of problems, forced by reality to make sense of the errors in our perception.
Seen in this way, creativity is not only a skill to be cultivated but a way of life; even the only way of life, if you believe it necessary to live fully.
What Comes Next
In the next post, we will look at 5 different ways BNB prepares students to live a life of creativity.
Till then.
