Hey everyone, sorry this is a couple weeks behind. Anyway, here we go. I do apologize in advance, this one might be a bit more of a rant haha.

Last post we defined Creativity, in a nutshell it is the ability to create, or to present new things out of existing things. Creativity is more than just “original ideas” but rather an extension of our very selves in what we do.

The importance of creativity cannot be understated. Without it we have no voice, only echos. You see unless you are thinking for yourself you will only say, do, or think what others around you do. This is an extremely dangerous thing, and it is the crippling issue of our society today. So many of us rather not put in the effort (and creativity is a great effort make no mistake), so we follow rather than strike out for ourselves. Mimicking, or copying, might be the highest form of flattery, but it is also lazy and unoriginal.

Don’t mistake this for inspiration drawn from others, which is not lazy. In fact, when it comes from a good source it can lead to far more creativity than without it.

All humans are capable of creativity, it is not restricted to just the arts! Pioneers in industry, business, and technology are absolutely just as creative as an artist or author. Without creativity we become stagnant and do not grow as people, nor as a society. This is why I have a passion against things like “common core” or more “reformed education” as they actively stomp out creativity in every faucet that I have ever encountered it. If we do not teach our children that creativity is good, or how to be creative then we doom ourselves in only a generation’s time!

Okay, attacking “common core” is a bold move I know. So here let me give a bit of evidence for that. Lets take math for instance. Under common core we attempt to equip children with the same set of tools to solve equations, and determine the solution. That sounds like a good thing right? Well it is not a good thing at all! You see, a problem (math or otherwise) always has multiple ways to solve it. In fact in my college Calculus class I know my professor went over no less than six ways to solve a single complicated math problem (all very distinct from one another as well). I do grant that some ways to solve a problem build easier into other more complicated problems. This does not account for the fact however, that every child’s mind is different. Not teaching kids a way that their brain understands, rather than try to force them to under stand the “common core” way is not doing them any favors. It is like saying every hole can be filled with the same round peg, even when the hole is a rectangle, oval, or triangle.

What does this have to do with creativity? Everything! Don’t think for a minute that we knew how to do complicated math without creativity paving the frontier. But rather than trying to teach our children the ability to reason and think for themselves, we have them memorize tables of conversions… An ounce of creativity is worth a pound of knowledge, without creative minds we would not have learned anything about anything.

Bottom line, out of the gifts of God, creativity helps us to grow in knowledge and better know Him. Love shows us how God see’s the world and it’s people. Creativity helps us learn about everything he put into the world. We should be teaching our children to Love their enemies, because wrath belongs to the Lord. We should also be teaching our children to be creative, because success doesn’t happen by chance. In order to do new things we must think of them first. In order to think of new things we must first be creative.

I’ll see you all next week, may God bless you and keep you.