What is one of the greatest sources of energy on the planet? Easy. It鈥檚 human ingenuity.
With that settled, maybe we can just get back to what we were doing in the first place. Besides, creative ideas can be disruptive, and our day is already planned.
Not so fast. Releasing ingenuity and stimulating creativity are becoming bedrock responsibilities for education and society. We wake up each day to a stark reality: The challenges we face are not yielding to business as usual.
Granted, having knowledge and experience coupled with a reasonable plan is essential. However, it isn鈥檛 a substitute for creativity, imagination, inventiveness, mindfulness, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Read more in Chapter 13 of Twenty-One Trends
What do we mean by ingenuity? It鈥檚 an aptitude for discovering, a tendency for originality, a skill in combining ideas to create something new. Creativity, on the other hand, helps us transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, and relationships to create new ideas, forms, methods, or interpretations. Imagination is often described as our ability to form a mental image of something that isn鈥檛 present or hasn鈥檛 ever been seen in reality. Innovation takes it a next step, actually introducing a new idea, method, or device, possibly something novel. Our thanks to Webster鈥檚 Dictionary.
It鈥檚 no secret. We鈥檙e drawn to movies, books, and social media that pique our imaginations. We are transfixed by stories about people who have broken new ground. Deep inside each of us is a pioneering spirit, just waiting to see the light of day.
It鈥檚 up to everyone, certainly every educator, to spot, encourage, and help develop the ingenuity that is all around us.
Where do we go from here?
鈥� Cultivate curiosity. Show me a person who is curious and persistent and I鈥檒l show you a person who will be pretty well educated for the rest of her or his life.
鈥� Declare thinking, reasoning, and problem solving basic skills. Make them a part of everything we teach. The demand for those skills is growing exponentially among employers and across civil society. Amazing how much we can learn and the creativity we can generate by simply asking who, what, where, when, how, and especially why.
鈥� Make discovery an essential part of learning. Active learning, learning through inquiry, and learning across disciplines can encourage us to seek and find.
鈥� Connect the need for creative solutions to real-life issues. For example, imagine how some communities can survive as the climate changes and water supplies run low.
鈥� 鈥淐reate an environment where imagination can flourish.鈥� That鈥檚 a suggestion from John Seely Brown, a former chief scientist for Xerox and longtime director of its PARC research center, which turned out inventions such as laser printing, computer generated graphics, pull down menus, and the mouse.
鈥� Pay attention to Howard Gardner鈥檚 advice in his classic book, Five Minds for the Future. Cultivate the creative mind, the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind.
鈥� Stand firm in supporting the arts and arts education. Accept the fact that music, dance, musical theater, the visual arts, design, creative writing, and many other art forms can stimulate our thinking and ignite our imaginations. The arts help us see and think in new ways, across all boundaries and disciplines.
鈥� Clear roadblocks, uncircle the wagons, and stop digging trenches. As we鈥檝e suggested in our book, Twenty-One Trends for the 21st Century, let鈥檚 not get entrenched in a fast-changing world. Avoid the temptation to stomp on ideas. Instead of the raised eyebrow or cold shoulder, consider a response such as, 鈥淚nteresting idea! What would you see as next steps? Let鈥檚 get that idea on our list. Keep thinking. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 going to keep us on the leading edge.鈥�
鈥� Encourage reasonable risk. Ellen Winner of the Arts and Minds Lab at Boston University observes that taking reasonable risks can be 鈥渆ndorphin-loading and high-energy, so it is part of what keeps kids engaged in creativity.鈥� Oklahoma State University鈥檚 Robert Sternberg, notes that schools and colleges too often discourage the very risk that it takes to be creative. 鈥淕enius,鈥� he says, 鈥渋s talent set on fire by courage.鈥� Sir Kenneth Robinson, a spirited authority on creativity, warns that we may even be 鈥渆ducating people out of their creativity.鈥�
If we hope to unleash genius, then let鈥檚 try to encourage people to become intellectual entrepreneurs, always seeking and always considering new ideas. Noted social analyst Richard Florida challenges us to put the pieces together to create new knowledge, sometimes called breakthrough thinking. To make that possible, we鈥檒l need to not only tolerate but embrace paradox, controversy, and complexity as part of a new normal.
It鈥檚 up to everyone, certainly every educator, to be a talent scout, and to spot, encourage, and help develop the ingenuity that is in each of us and all around us.