Nicaragua: Creativity
"Creativity" is not a synonym for "arts and crafts."
I didn't think grasping such a concept would be so difficult, but that's coming from a girl who grew up in a school environment which fostered critical thinking skills. I'm finding that when I try to explain the concept of creativity here, the students in my classes and youth group seem to struggle. Hearing the word "creatividad" seems to instantly correlate to making pretty bracelets and flower pots.
Not to say that being artsy is bad. In fact, I highly encourage it. However, we are trying to take creativity to a whole different level here. We're talking about thinking outside of the box, coming up with crazy ideas, innovating, and doing things that have never been done before. In other words, turning the flower pot into something completely different. Such is the spirit of an entrepreneur.
In a way I feel like my work here is to help students start their own "lemonade stands." Everybody starts somewhere, right? And eventually, everybody gets bored of the same old lemonade. That's where the creativity challenge comes in: how can you make your lemonade stand different and better than the rest?
We may not have a surplus of resources to work with, but that's not to say that we don't have any. With a lot of encouragement, I know brilliant ideas will be extracted from these students' minds. And with a brilliant idea, the sky is the limit.
I didn't think grasping such a concept would be so difficult, but that's coming from a girl who grew up in a school environment which fostered critical thinking skills. I'm finding that when I try to explain the concept of creativity here, the students in my classes and youth group seem to struggle. Hearing the word "creatividad" seems to instantly correlate to making pretty bracelets and flower pots.
Not to say that being artsy is bad. In fact, I highly encourage it. However, we are trying to take creativity to a whole different level here. We're talking about thinking outside of the box, coming up with crazy ideas, innovating, and doing things that have never been done before. In other words, turning the flower pot into something completely different. Such is the spirit of an entrepreneur.
In a way I feel like my work here is to help students start their own "lemonade stands." Everybody starts somewhere, right? And eventually, everybody gets bored of the same old lemonade. That's where the creativity challenge comes in: how can you make your lemonade stand different and better than the rest?
We may not have a surplus of resources to work with, but that's not to say that we don't have any. With a lot of encouragement, I know brilliant ideas will be extracted from these students' minds. And with a brilliant idea, the sky is the limit.
Comments
Post a Comment