MELISSA STRICKLAND

I Was a "Wrong Answer" Kid

One of the most vivid memories I have is of a day in kinder­garten when the teacher told me, quite emphatically, thattrees DO NOT have blue leaves! I was crushed; but notabout the blue leaves. I simply didn't care about the cold,hard reality of it. Blue was a favorite color and I wanted toinclude it in my picture of a tree whose leaves were changingcolors. Was that so terrible? The teacher seemed to think so,and I was wrong! wrong! wrong!

As I continued my early education, I finally learned tostop giving the "wrong" answers; in short, I learned whatsells and what doesn't. Then, when I was about to entercollege I found that the people I really admired and enjoyedworking with shared one thing; they were creative. Oh, howI yearned to be creative like they were, but I just wasn't bornone of those "creative genius types" ... at least, I didn'tthink I was.

I never felt' that there was any connection between myblue leaves experience and my creative potential. In fact, Iwasn't even aware that I had creative potential.

Luckily, I received a postcard in the mail one day thatliterally changed my life. It invited me to take part in acollege project that would help nurture my creativity. Ofcourse I jumped at the chance! Perhaps they could performsome magic trick to make me creative.

The change in me was magical, but the method? weren't.Under the guidance of Dr. Sidney]. Pames and Dr. RuthB. Noller of the Creative Studies Program, I was exposed toprocedures that could help anyone be more creative, nomatter what they wanted to do with their lives.

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One of the first things I learned was to stop classifyingeverything as a right or wrong answer. From early childhoodwe are condltioned to make judgments, and the quicker thebetter! Yet, a quick decision is frequently not the bestdecision. What might be passed up as a wrong answer might,.in fact, be the key to the best solution.

Everyone has a certain amount of creativity. Some peopleexpress it fully while others repress it. If, for example, Iasked you, "which is louder, a smile or a frown," how wouldyou answer? Would you answer or would you hesitate,wondering what was I getting at? A small child wouldanswer instantly; unrestricted creativity! The child wouldn'tconcern itself with right answers, but would follow it's basicinstinct to be creative. I'm not suggesting that if a child tellsyou that the nation's capitol is Seattle, you should smile andsay, "How creative!" Rather, what I am saying is that thereare many questions and situations which allow for more than"one right answer." We have to be careful with what welabel right answers or wrong answers.

Creativity may be defined as perceiving new and relevantmeanings and relationships in what we know and what weare concerned about. Imagination is the key to creativity.It utilizes the information we take in through our senses. So,the more we observe and are aware of, the more mentalconnections we can make ·that will result in new and relevantideas.

A child automatically trusts his imagination. In that sensewe have to become like children again if we want to regainour creativity and help it grow.

How did we lose it in the first place? In many ways. Forexample, I lost mine with a teacher who didn't believe inblue leaves and with the rules that seem to go with coloringbooks.

Coloring books are great if they encourage a child to makea blank page come alive with color. Too often though, there'ssomeone nearby prodding, ''Be sure that you don't go outsidethe lines I,"or"eolor only in one direction, Mary," or"Johnny,you know the little boy can't have purple hairl" Why can'the? Maybe "Johnny" wanted to color a boy who had falleninto a grape juice vat trying to escape a gorilla ... we maynever know because Johnny's creativity was squelched. Itmight not have happened if somebody had simply asked whypurple hair? i or if Johnny had a big blank sheet of paper onwhich he could have drawn the boy, the grape juice vat andthe gorilla.

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If you think back, I'm sure you can recall things that mayhave deterred you from being creative. Even now, you maysee these same things happening to your son or daughter.But don't panic! The damage is not beyond repair, for eitheryou or your child.

Feel better? I did when I learned that there was hope forme. In the midst of an energy crisis, I will look to the auto­mobile for an analogy. We're all aware that an automobileneeds not only gasoline to operate, but also oil, water andair. Your brain needs "fuel" from different sources, too, inorder to function. It needs to take in not only what you seewith your eyes, but what you hear, what you taste, whatyou smell and what you touch. All these things, combinedin a mixture, will ignite your imagination.

An automobile also has brakes which serve a very impor­tant function when properly applied. The key point here isto know when to apply them. If you are planning to dosome high speed travelling on the expressway, you wouldplace your foot on the accelerator rather than the brakes.Criticism may be likened to the brakes in that it serves toslow down or completely stop your mental processes. Youwill never be able to determine the true potential of an idea ­even a crazy idea - if you 'brake the idea' at the start.

Before you can solve a problem, you must be able to defineit. How often have you thrown up your hands and thought,"It's just a big mess." Well, as long as it stays a mess, youcan't solve it. Learn to seek out the facts. If it's .a situation,ask yourself: Who does it involve?, What does it involve?,When did it all start?, Where did- it all start?, Why did itstart?, and How did it start? Answers to these questions willhelp you to understand your problem. If the mess involvesan object, ask questions like: How big is it?, What color isit?, Why does it bother me?, etc. Get the idea?

Now you can get to the core of the mess and find thereal problem. Using what you lemed from asl<ing the pre­ceding questions, you can begin asking problem-findingquestions which begin with: "In what ways may ...."Stating a problem that way tends to encourage the flow ofideas. Often you will find that the broadest possible problemstatement opens up the most idea avenues.

Linus Pauling believes that "the best way to have a goodidea is to have lots of ideas." Don't settle for the first one orthe second, or third, although you may come back fo them.Get a storehouse of ideas: crazy ideas, conservative ideas,all kinds of ideas. When you have a stockpile of them,

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select the most promising ones and rate them against criteriathat wUI help you determine their workability.

Using criteria like "How much wUI it cost?", "How muchtime will it take?", etc. will enable you to get off the imagin­ation expressway and evaluate your ideas so that you canreach a tentative solution. Often when you reach this pointyou come face to face with an entirely different problem;getting people to accept your idea. Just go back to the prob­lem-finding step and ask, "In what ways can I show everyonethat this is a good idea?" You11 find a way.

The problem-solving suggestions discussed in this articlecan help you to become more creative on the whole. Re­member to open yourself to all possibilities. Be totally awareof all sensory experiences. Feel free and express yourself.When you can express yourself freely, you can encouragecreativity in others by making them feel comfortable withtheir ideas. Believe in yourself. You have to feel you can becreative, before you can become one of those creative geniustypes. But you can do it.

Habits are another roadblock to creativity. Doing thingsthe same way all the time may be comfortable but not alwayseffective. Be careful not to let comfort come before creativity.If you find yourself saying, "But, that's the way I've alwaysdone it," you may be in a rut and it might be time to askyourself why you've always done it that way. Don't get mewrong, not all habits are bad, but you have to be on yourguard not to become just IIa creature of habit."

50, if you were ever a wrong answer kid like I was, or ifyou know one, remember that a great part of creativity isopening up and looking at things from another point ofview. Consider that different answer. Wrong answer kidsmay have the right idea after all .... a creative idea.

Melissa Strickland.Address: 208 Hirschfield Drive, Williamsvllle, New York 14221.

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