So...we're supposed to write about different speakers and how they teach at least twice....ya so church this morning. Pastor Amy gave the sermon. Now I must say I prefer Pastor Amy to some of the other pastors, but today her sermon just didn't do it for me. It was all over the place and made absolutely no sense...it was something about her child wearing snow pants???? To be honest I really don't know...so that part of the service was really just not good...however there were some other things that were great "teaching moments" as my dad would say.
There was a song were the pastors just decided to let it all go and dance, we can never know if they were dancing because God told them to or what, but it lightened the "church" mood considerably. It's just always great to see leaders/teachers just let go sometimes, go a little bit farther outside their comfort zone. Pastor Mike did an excellent bird impression:) I just really quite enjoy the "Authenticity" of the leaders/teachers at this school.
More to come later on CAL and "the parade of conductors" (all of whom are GREAT teachers).
BYE!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Inventiveness (or rather Creativity)
So...long time...such is the life of a music major. But anyway creativity...possibly one of the most important concepts to humans. Although the most creative people never seem to be recognized as that during their life times, look at all the artists and composers that we now find to be quite splendid, but in their time were hardly noticed on the streets when they were begging like every other poor person for a scrap of food. In today's world (except at Luther College) creativity is ignored and squashed. Our schools forget that part of a child's normal development is creativity in their play. We've put a grade on everything, every picture you draw must have some sort of written story to go with it. Every song you sing must be sung well and in tune and have proper words. Every time a band student picks up their instrument their teacher judges them on the progress they've made. Even in the "adult" world, jobs have been placed under a money value system. The highest paid people are for the most part the people that have boring jobs that do not require creativity.
However, that's stuff we all know, after all we grew up in that world. I think the key to encouraging students to be creative is to first and foremost to just let them be kids. You can't put a child in a classroom for 6 hours a day without an ounce of fun or creative outlet in that time period. It just doesn't work. I think that's common sense though. Possibly less common is the idea of instilling in children that it's OK to be wrong. Kids are terrified of failing today because such emphasis is placed on passing and succeeding. But it is just peachy fine to be wrong sometimes. It's OK to say "I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to draw this big blob on this paper and be proud of it." Kids don't get the encouragement on their "creations" enough. While their parents may put up the artwork that gets the highest grade on the wall, they don't put up that scribbling in the coloring book of Scooby Doo that the child did when they were just chilling. This needs to change.
As for how important creativity is today...well...I could go on about how much music helps the world and brings us all together but I won't... Creativity is important in the 21st century because there are now problems in this world that people five years ago didn't even know would happen. We need creative people to find new sources of energy, to preserve our environment, to find ways to keep peace in the world...we need creative people to do a whole lot more now than to just create pretty music or pretty pictures...no now we need creativity to be practical perhaps this is the change in the mindset we need to change the negative views of being creative...just perhaps.
However, that's stuff we all know, after all we grew up in that world. I think the key to encouraging students to be creative is to first and foremost to just let them be kids. You can't put a child in a classroom for 6 hours a day without an ounce of fun or creative outlet in that time period. It just doesn't work. I think that's common sense though. Possibly less common is the idea of instilling in children that it's OK to be wrong. Kids are terrified of failing today because such emphasis is placed on passing and succeeding. But it is just peachy fine to be wrong sometimes. It's OK to say "I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to draw this big blob on this paper and be proud of it." Kids don't get the encouragement on their "creations" enough. While their parents may put up the artwork that gets the highest grade on the wall, they don't put up that scribbling in the coloring book of Scooby Doo that the child did when they were just chilling. This needs to change.
As for how important creativity is today...well...I could go on about how much music helps the world and brings us all together but I won't... Creativity is important in the 21st century because there are now problems in this world that people five years ago didn't even know would happen. We need creative people to find new sources of energy, to preserve our environment, to find ways to keep peace in the world...we need creative people to do a whole lot more now than to just create pretty music or pretty pictures...no now we need creativity to be practical perhaps this is the change in the mindset we need to change the negative views of being creative...just perhaps.
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