Michael Michalko: 12 Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking

Image courtesy of creativedc via Creative Commons.

According to business executives and school administrators, creativity is a very important skill, but as a recent study revealed, "neither schools nor businesses are making creativity a requirement of either their employees or their students." And many people, such as Sir Ken Robinson, even believe that schools are killing creativity.

At IHE we believe that creativity is an essential skill for bringing about a just, compassionate, healthy world for all; it's one of our core elements of humane education: fostering the 3C's of curiosity, creativity & critical thinking. We have to be able to simultaneously see the big picture and the small; find the both/and rather than the either/or; and discover the solutions that do the most good and least harm for people, animals, and the earth. That's no easy task -- which is why developing our own creative thinking skills as educators, activists, citizens, and students is important.

Creativity author and columnist Michael Michalko recently offered 12 concepts about creativity that usually aren't taught in schools. They are:

1.  You are creative.
2. Creative thinking is work.
3. You must go through the motions of being creative.
4. Your brain is not a computer.
5. There is no one right answer.
6. Never stop with your first good idea.
7. Expect the experts to be negative.
8. Trust your instincts.
9. There is no such thing as failure.
10. You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are.
11. Always approach a problem on its own terms.
12. Learn to think unconventionally.

Read the complete post.


How do you flex your creativity in your own life? Your students' lives? Your work? Your activism? Your citizenship? Your parenting?

~ Marsha
  
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