Creative Thinking

When I was a child, one of my favourite subjects was Creative Thinking.  "Creative Thinking", you might be thinking "What is that?"  Well I am aware that Creative Thinking is not a class in all places, but for 3 glorious years I lived in a very unique place mentioned in this post.  And it was there that I took a class called "Creative Thinking".

In Creative Thinking, I was asked to think of possible solutions for problems, and think of inventions I'd like to see.  We drew pictures of these solutions and inventions and wrote about them, explaining the pictures.  Nobody was allowed to have anything that resembled any other students work.  We had to think of solutions on our own.

That's one thing that really annoyed me when we moved away from there: the teachers expectations that my answers would be like everybody else's.  Even in art she'd hold up some sort of example, tell us what to do, and then get upset when I did something that didn't look like every body else's.  To this day, I think her way of teaching was dead wrong.  Is the point of education to be to make everybody think exactly alike, copy other people's work, and be little clones?  Or is the point to encourage learning and individual thinking?  I argue the latter, but many teachers think it's the first.  It mystified me and annoyed me then, and it still mystifies me now.

I waited, thinking that some day I would take another Creative Thinking class.  Maybe it was offered in a different grade?  Maybe some day...  But some day never came.

Until Now.

I have a huge journal, that I bought for something else.  It's bigger than the regular 8.5 x 11 paper, the paper is soft, smooth and creamy white, and it's unlined.  I bought it for something else, but used about 10 pages of it before discarding the project I bought it for.

Well...  I'm going to use it for Creative Thinking.  I loved that class.  It brought me happiness and joy to think of unique solutions and inventions.  Why can't I do that now?  As I said in previous posts I already discovered listening to Raffi while drawing in adult colouring books is still fun, even though I'm adult.  Why wouldn't Creative Thinking class?  And why can't I just sit, with this huge journal, and think of solutions to the worlds problems, and inventions I'd like to see, and anything other creative ideas I have, and express them in this journal.  Why not?

And that is what I'm going to do.  Starting today.


P.S.

You can read about Raffi and Adult Colouring Books in these three posts.

Raffi and Adult Colouring Books

I had an absolutely fabulous day

Adult Colouring Books and Regression.

Adult Colouring Books and Regression.

Ok.  I know this is my 3rd maybe 4th day talking about colouring books, and this will most likely be my last post on this topic.

I was thinking a lot about it today, as I drove around the city doing errands.

As I said before, I took in psychology class that adults doing things children do is called regression and regression is "bad".  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) at this time, I don't remember much else about regression.  A whole two years of psychology classes, and all I remember about regression can be fit into one sentence.  Oh well.  I remember my math classes much better - and that is a different subject all together.

So...  Have many people in the world regressed?  Are we all doing psychological bad things by colouring in colouring books?  No.

There are many ways of dealing with stress that are considered "adult" and are not considered "regression" and therefore "bad".  Drinking, smoking, shopping, having coffee, watching porn and doing drugs are all "adult" ways of dealing with stress.  All of them cause problems, and all of them can be considered "harmless" or "harmful", depending on the person you're talking to and the extent to which they are done.  I don't have to mention the effects of all of these things.

Colouring, listening to children's music, and swinging on the swing in the neighbourhood park, all of which I have done at times of stress, are not harmful to anybody.  It's not harmful to me or to anybody else.  It maybe unconventional, but nobody ever harmed their lungs with a colouring book, or had a little too much children's music, or overdosed on swinging in the park.  Nobody was hurt by another person's colouring, or set up a support group of friends and family of those who swing in the park.

And so, even if this is regression, I think my way of dealing with this stressful time in my live, is perfectly safe, harmless, and acceptable.

Whoever said "regression" is bad just didn't understand how much fun it is to colour.