WEEK 12 "*GENIUS* is the *ERROR* in the system." ~ Paul Klee ~

Paul Klee Magic Garden

Paul Klee Puppet Theater

Paul Klee Runner At the Goal

"*GENIUS* is the *ERROR* in the system."
~ Paul Klee ~

I came across this amazing article from the website, http://www.thethirdteacher.com/  titled,

Teaching Creativity:  The Answers Aren't in the Back of the Book, by Brian D. Cohen.

...this article made me smile :)...

Cohen explains that as an art teahcer, when students ask him for help on how to do something, he often doesn't answer.  He says that he isn't "possessive" of his knowledge.  No, instead, he believes that no one "possesses" knowledge, rather, it should be *discovered*....

As teachers, we imply there are "definite" answers and that we possess them  ((the "end-all-be-all")).

Cohen goes on to say, "Sometimes teachers play a kind of game in which they encourage students to guess the answer in the teacher's head. It might be better played the other way around."

"I think of knowledge as familiarity with facts and understanding as the ability to apply the principles of knowledge to new conditions and circumstances. Creativity (I would never limit this term to the arts only) involves understanding and, paradoxically and simultaneously, not knowing; entering a process where ready answers are inadequate to the task, and where the resolution at first uncertain. And often when things do come out, and they usually do though it takes a while, they don't look so good at first.  *When you work something out on your own, you often do so awkwardly, haltingly, even blindly, without fully knowing the outcome ahead of time. *"

"The best art schools AREN'T vocational schools, in which students are taught a set of 'skills'.  Students are 'trained' to learn the rules and to speak the language of their medium, but more importantly, they are encouraged to *develop* their own habits of mind and to acquire the discipline of continuing to work in the face of not being able to get the answers right away."

What else do students learn how to do in arts education?
1. They learn how to not give up until they get there.

2. They learn how their first answer may not be the best.

3. They learn how the last answer may help you get to the next, but it won't be the next answer.

4. They learn how there might be more than one way of interpreting or doing something.
5. They learn how skill and knowledge in their discipline is a means and a beginning, not an end.

6. They learn how to live with *uncertainty*, to *pursue* outcomes that are not predetermined.

7. They learn how one must risk the thing one cares most about.

8. They learn how to look anywhere and everywhere for answers.

9. They learn how nothing is sacred and everything is sacred.

10. They learn how to let go of the shore and push off into the middle of the river.

"Figuring things out for yourself has a high value:
Thinking is the best way to learn. But it's painful and a lot of work,
and
lengthy uncertainty is uncomfortable."

Link to full-text article:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-d-cohen/arts-education_b_1084498.html?ref=tw