Speech 185, 285, or 385
Below is a sample of an online lesson. You never have to show up to a class. The lessons are available 24/7 from any computer in the world with an internet connection.
This is part of the first Creativity lesson. This example is for you to know what to expect in your lessons. There is also sound and some interactive sections to get you more involved in learning. My hope is for you to learn and actually enjoy yourself in the process.
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Creativity Lesson 1
Introducing Creativity
Where it all begins....
A young baby is constantly facing new situations never before encountered. Many of these enounters allow us to make a choice. The more these choices work and are successful, the more we continue making them and exclude any other options. We enter school and begin an education in the quest to be civilized. As school encourages us to behave a certain way and look at the world in a particular fashion we fall into continual patterns. We lose our creativity.
We are all born creative. But we spend a life time unlearning that skill.
Or as Siegfried and Therese Engelmann write in their book, Give Your Child a Superior Mind, " The human animal is the only one on earth so intelligent that it can actually learn to be stupid."
To be creative, we need to again be childlike. View the world with a youthful wonderment and amazement.
By the way, the dancing baby in the above picture has spawned much creativity. Many websites are devoted to this animation. Contests on the creation of new versions of the baby have emerged.
If you are interestedin seeing more of the baby, try the Dancing Baby Megasite.
Importance of Creativity
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Philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, presented one of the two most haunting and challenging of all philosophical propositions:
Eternal Return
To paraphrase: What if, one day (or one evening), you were approached by a demon who told you that you will have to live this life, that you are now living, over and over again in exact repetition, forever? You could change nothing. Not a word, not an act, not a rain drop, nothing. Everything would be the same and you would relive it over and over for eternity. What would you do? Would you throw yourself down, gnash your teeth, and curse the demon? Or, is your life of such a satisfying magnitude that you would leap for joy and bless him because you have never heard of anything more divine?
Take a second to think about these options. How would you respond? Most people would not choose to live their life over again as they have lived it.
Now look at the same general proposition, but this time in a somewhat lenient light. Is there one time in your life that you would choose to live over and over? Not the whole thing, just a selected part. What is it and why would you choose that time or that event? The answer may tell you a great deal about what you value and perhaps some of the new choices you should be making.
Consider now a corollary proposition--the one that really counts: If you could construct your life, starting today, in such a manner that you would be content to live it over and over again for all eternity, how would you construct it?... Would you give yourself the courage to take the risks?...Would you shoot the photographs, sing the songs, make the movies, write the scripts? Go on more trips? Laugh more? Would you start your own company, speak up in meetings? What would you do?
"Creativity has nothing to do with how well you write, how well you paint, how well you play the tuba; these are the children of creativity. True creativity is the philosophy of your life. It is a philosophy that does not yield to the vicissitudes of cultural winds. It is a philosophy that only pays passing deference to the limits of the 'givens.' Creativity questions everything and has no compunction about inquiring into the taboo, the unexpected, the unaccepted, and the disallowed. Above all, creativity is a philosophy of acting courageously. The creative person does not have to be a great artist, a great singer, a great sculptor. She has only to be great at acting on her desire to experience things and she will, by defintion, be creative. She will also have a vastly more interesting life."---Floyd Hurt
Importance in Professional Life
More and more reports and advice of professional consultants point to the idea that corporations are looking for creative individuals for their corporations. These large and small companies realize that having a staff who can find innovative solutions to challenges can mean the success or failure of their company. Once or twice a year your supervisor will evaluate your performance. Many of these performance evaluation forms have a category titled "Creativity" to determine your creative ability. Your creativity may greatly aid your promotions and increases in salary.
Importance in Personal Life
Creativity is also useful in solving personal problems. Creativity can be used to come up woth that unique anniversary present, motivating yourself to stay on that diet or workout schedule ore even one of the most creative of all activities, raising children.
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Besides just solving personal problems, creativity can be used to generate personal wealth. In other words, you can make money from your creative ideas. Several people have used the technogolgy of the internet and have begun to provide a service for grieving pet owners. They have created the "virtual pet cemetary." |
Defining Creativity
Creativity is not a mystic gift granted to only a few. One way of looking at creativity is merely the combining of two items into one object. The clock radio is a combination of the clock and the radio to create a new appliance. But why stop there? An example of combining known ideas has emerged from a Japanese research lab where they have combined a modem, refrigerator, scanner and a microwave oven. Hungry? On your way home? With this invention you can dial up your refrigerator, tap in the meal you want to take from the freezer. As it travels to the microwave oven on a conveyer type belt, the scanner reads the bar code cooking instructions. By the time you arrive home your dinner is ready.
One person who had a history changing creative insight was Gutenberg.
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No, not Steve Guttenberg. He is the actor of the famous Police Academy series of movies. |
| This one. Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. | |
| Creativity is not anything magical. It can be as simple as combining two seemingly unrelated ideas. While drinking wine one afternoon, Johann Gutenberg happened to observe the action of the wine press. He watched how the press evenly crushed the grapes to begin the wine making process. He then remembered the die/punches he had back at work. Suddenly, in a flash of creativity, he combined the wine press with the die/punches and the result was the printing press. |  |
Combining two seemingly unrelated ideas continues today, for example
This is a little hot dog stand in Van Nuys, California. It was started years ago by an attorney just out of law school. He had just began his practice as an attorney and had few clients. He needed a way to publicize his law practice. His solution? Combine his law practice with a hot dog stand. Besides serving up hot dogs he could also serve up legal advice. His practice did so well, that he is now limited to giving law advice one night a week at his hot dog stand.
By combining two seemingly unrelated ideas, a new and unique solution was created |
Legal Grind
| A more up to date version of the legal hotdog stand is the combination of legal advice and coffee. Here in Los Angeles it is called the Legal Grind. There are two locations, Santa Monica and Tarzana. They have combined this concept further with the addition of the internet. To go online, click on the symbol below for their web site. |
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How about combining fast food and fast gasoline.
I guess you can fill up both of your "tanks" at the same time, your car's and you.
What two or more things could you combine to create something new?
For example:
What could you combine with a refrigerator to create a new kitchen appliance?
What could you combine with a chair? I am sure that you have seen classroom chairs which combine small desks?
What could you combine with a clock radio to create that new "must have" home device?
Dilbert Creator Scott Adams
Dilbert creator Scott Adams has developed a web site devoted to creating mission statements. Mission statements are guidelines used for a corporation or any organization which guide them on their goals and how to conduct themselves. Most companies take them very serious. Not Scott Adams. He has created this web site with a variety of words which are randomly combined to create new and confusing mission statements. This is a creative process known as forced connections. Go to the site and try a few of these mission statements yourself.
Definitions of Creativity
1. Creativity is Perception
According to scientist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, creative thinking consists in "looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different." Another creative expert simplified this by saying that creativity is seeing something with a "fresh eye."
2. Creativity is Youthful Enthusiasm
"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm."----Aldous Huxley
3. Creativity is Flexibility
Creativity is the ability to break from rigid habits, the defeat of habit by originality.
And there you have it, what part of a lesson looks like. After each lesson you do a short activity and then can move on to the next lesson. There are five lessons in total.
Remember, you can take a five lesson class on creativity or Male/Female Communication for Speech 185 or both for Speech 285. If you need a third unit you can take both of these classes and a third online project with the professor for Speech 385.
If you are interested, add Speech 185 for one unit or Speech 285 for two units or Speech 385 for three units.
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Is this cool or what? |