We live quite close to a suburban university campus, and there is a lane that links the campus to the boys' school. This is most convenient as it allows school pick-ups to happen in the university car park rather than engendering traffic chaos on the dual carriageway that fronts the school. Sometimes one of my boys will come out at the usual time with the other not expected for another hour because of some after-school activity, mostly GCSE revision sessions for Sun 1 these days.
All this to explain why, now and again, I find myself in the campus café, slumped over an enormous cardboard cup of tea listening with attempted enthusiasm to endless tales of schoolboy misadventures. For an hour.
The café is suitably named Einstein and it has exactly this sticker on the wall facing the sofa where I found myself slumped last week. Jo and I looked for it when we got home. He did think it ironic that such a statement on creativity should be displayed in such an utterly empty picture. I was just pleased that he could use a word like ironic...
But the question is: was Einstein right? Far be it from me to consider questioning his scientific genius. No, no, no. I can't even use a word like quantum. I just thought about this quote all the way home, and it still wafts about in the often utterly empty space that is my head. Surely this quote stands on lots and lots of assumptions that we might not actually accept:
Do you have to be intelligent to be creative? And what is intelligence anyway? Can we not all have light-bulb moments, regardless of either our creativity or our intelligence? I think I wholly disagree with the greatest genius of the twentieth century. Hmm. Maybe I just need to drink more university tea!
6 comments:
Just drink more tea (whether or not from a university pot) If we all are made in the image of the Creator, surely we should all have some spark of creativity within us, whether or not we have any intelligence?
Well, he didn't say you had to have a LOT of intelligence, lol. Don't make me think! Ouch! ;)
I like Angela's and Lisa's ideas!!
Everyone has SOME intelligence. Even those who are severely developmentally disabled, or low on the IQ score. And everyone is creative, by my (surely enlightened ;-) ) way of seeing things. If we only think of creativity as a certain kind of artistic ability, we limit ourselves way too much and can't appreciate the amazing humans that God has created.
It takes creativity to solve problems, and I have heard and believe that much work involves solving some kind of problem. It takes creativity to create order where there is chaos, and even to change ourselves, the last idea I got from Metropolitan Anthony Bloom some years ago:
"Creativeness, however, is something more complex than the ability to call out new forms, to shape one’s surroundings or even to determine to a certain extent…our destiny. It begins with the ability to change — to change intentionally. Creativeness begins with the ability a being has…to become what he is not yet, to start at the point at which he was created and then grow into a fullness that he did not possess before: from image to likeness, if you will — having begun to be, as it were, a reflection, to become the reality itself; having begun to be in the image of the invisible Creator, to become the image of God incarnate."
Now that kind of creativity must not have much to do with intelligence, and I don't think "fun" is the right word for it. I always prefer joy over fun anyway!
(I had to browse around to see if that was actually said by Einstein, because so many quotes are attributed to him these days! But it seems to be legit.)
What interesting questions!
When I see those three words, I want to understand them as a single unit. Creativity is first, and it belongs to everyone. There are nearly endless ways in which to be creative, right? Creativity is just making something -- not even necessarily something new that hasn't been seen before. But we should always use our intellect when we are creative, and I think of intellect as simply STUDY. It has nothing to do with native brains, but everything to do with applying ourselves to our particular creative area with diligence and some study of those who do it well. So we watch youtube videos or read books, or simply practice. That's smart.
And of course ... Creativity + Intelligence = Having Fun!!
Leave it to Einstein to make it into a math equation, right?
Wasn't quantum a Bond movie?
Seriously...at least more seriously...my MIL had this "talk" frequently and she maintained intelligence could be measured. I still maintain intelligence can only be measured against what some (probably) white guy maintained are the questions. Am I less intelligent because I know how to tell when a sheep needs de-worming than say, a person who can add vast sums in their head.?
Intelligence is what one needs to know to maintain order in their own particular sphere.
At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Oh, I think there are a lot of different sorts of intelligence, so I think people can be creative even if they're not academically "clever". Much as Sandra is saying. (Not that I'm saying she's not clever!)
Post a Comment