LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR CREATIVITY R. VENKATA RAMANAN

LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR CREATIVITY

R. VENKATA RAMANAN

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those to imposters just the same: Yours is to earth and everything that is in it”  said Rudyard Kipling.

Here is a message from the humble NEEM TREE,

CREATION VS DESTRUCTION

Just a CRITICISM is a form of appreciation, DESTRUCTIVE mentality is a form of CREATIVITY.

Most people who are creative have achieved the intangible through their hard work and determination to give at leat one invention or discovery to their human kind. It is the responsibility of future generations to use these discovery or invention for constructive purpose and not for destruction.

HOW PEOPLE ACHIEVED THEIR CREATIONS?

Nature is full of ideas. They are every where around us. Some people observed nature keenly and assimilated the ideas from nature and used them to create and invent things to make our lives easy.Let us see some of the NATURAL EVENTS THAT LED TO INNOVATION AND DISCOVERY:

1.   The shifting of shaddow of a vertical object as time and SUN advances in a day, led to the invention of SUN DIAL. Later observing tides and flow of water led to HOUR GLASS ; when water was replaced by fine sand SAND CLOCKS came. As time passed metallurgy and, wheels and gears led to the discovery of ANALOGUE CLOCKS.

2.   Natural medical physicians as well as ordinary folks have been using the extracts of the BATKS of WILLOW TREE ; that from WINTER GREEN PLANT (Gaultheria fragmentissima) and MEADOW SWEET to releive pain.All these plants contain Salicylic acid or their esters and were used for a long time as anti inflammatory and for pain killing. The meadowsweet had its old name as Spiraea ulmaria. ; the famous ASPIRIN or Acetyl salicylic acid owes its name to this plant.

3.   Apple was falling ever since evolution brought it to its existence. It helped NEWTON through his acute Observation and inquiry to propose the THEORY OF GRAVITATION.

4.   George de Mestral’s keen observation of naturally dispersed seed through animals ; led to the invention of HOOP and LOOP FASTENERS . Seeds that cling on to animals as they moved to be dispersed elsewhere helped him.

Innumerable such instances can be quoted from the WESTERN DISCOVERY.

When the west was busy in discovering tangible ways for making human life easy, the EAST was busy in analyzing nature and resorted to STORY TELLING  in bringing out INTANGIBLE KNOWLEDGE.

a.    VALMIKI who wrote RMAYANA describes of HANUMAN going in the OUTER ATMOSPHERE to catch the SUN AS A BALL OF FIRE . much before COPPERNICUS was born.

b.    The sages of India  described SUKRA , one of the Nine planets as a one eyed guru of Asuras, describing the that it is not possible to see the full circular disc of VENUS , as it was always a crescent , being an inner planet.

c.    They also described SATURN as SANEESWARA , as the EESWARA  implied wearing a crown to exemplify the ring system of Saturn which looked like wearing a cap.

d.   Our Galaxy was described as KSHEERASAGARA (Sanskrit) or PARKADAL (Tamil) where earth is born ; while WESTERN ASTRONOMY describes it as MILKY WAY or AMBROSIA.

Thus we see the ability to keenly observe is the KEY to GREAT CREATIVITY.

HOW SHOULD ONE GET  EDUCATED TO BE CREATIVE ?

History says that Creativity is not linked to intelligence shown in education or even the educational level. It comes from inherent latent talent of an individual irrespective of age  and qualifications. Let us take some example:

1.   ROBERT BOOLE was only a third standard educated student when he formulated the BOOLEAN ALGEBRA. This has revolutionized the computer industry and education through the concepts  propounded by Boole, and logic gates are playing a very significant part in computational Sciences.

2.   Thomas Alva EDISON was asked to be withdrawn from his school. Enraged mother of Edison retorted,” I will educate Eddie” and withdrew him. He grew up ; Starting a carrier as a PAPER BOY , his creativity sprang up to become a man who holds , THE LARGEST NUMBER OF PATENTS TO DAY.

3.   Albert Einstein had been adjudged to be poor in mathematics in his collegiate days. But his mathematical equation E=mc²   , is still the best the world can think of.

4.   Looking at the Indian scenario, we have G.D.Naidu, who is dubbed as “Indian EDISON” , studied only primary classes ,. He was the pioneer in designing electric motor in India and to day , Coimbatore in Tamilnadu is the hub for the manufacture of Electric Motors. He also contributed to several inventions including super thin shaving blades.

Education alone does not guaranty the quality of Innovation and creativity in an individual. But education can help in refining the   inventions and taking it to the society for development. No doubt Dr.C.V.Raman, was awarded NOBEL PRIZE for discovering Raman spectroscopy. India ignored its value and never funded further work on it. It is the Germans and Japanese who refined the discovery to make it a great tool fort finger printing molecules.

On the other hand if you can educate children to observe intently and with genuine curiosity, then innovation and creativity would automatically spring.

What should be the qualities one must imbibe to be creative?

1.Ability to accept change as permanent NATURAL PROCESS . ( Change is the only permanent factor in the Universe.)

2. Ability to accept failure and learning to analyse the cause of failure impartially.

3. Frugality and Frugal habits ensures, inexpensive creativity and inexpensive creations.

4.Locate and get to know people who have had similar ideas and have succeeded.

5.Develop enterprising ability to talk to strangers at their level and befriend them.

6. Develop a keen sense of observing nature including sky gazing and ponder over your observations for any hint that may hit the back of your mind.

7.Never criticize others  including your teachers. It could be possible, you may discover, one of your teacher is very poor in subject. Thank him for giving you a chance to learn your self and discover the difference between good teaching and poor teaching.

8. Nothing that exists is a WASTE. Everything has a definite purpose for its existence. Discover if you can.

9. You may find a child repeatedly breaking a dry leaf and wondering the sound produced or beating a metal spoon over and over again. It may be annoying to you. For the child it is a discovery.

10. Remember it is easier to define “What happiness is not. Than to define what happiness is”

11.If you have some work shop or space, collect as many things you like as possible and observe them often and see whether you can find some ways of using them.

12. Be very quick to observe any change that may occur and relate it to its utility in day to day life.

13. Passion for doing some thing new, is the basic motivation for creativity.

14.Patience and Perseverance pays.

15. Learn to differentiate instinct and innovation. Tool using monkeys  taught human beings how to make tools and use them.

16. Remember Planning takes a longer time than execution.

17. Have pride in your for fathers and ancestors. They lived at a time mobile, computers, Google and Wikipedia did not exist.

18. Look critically ancient mythologies, stories and epics , you may discover or learn something new .

19. Punctuality is very important and remember “WORK IS WORSHIP”

20. Remember you want to wear good dress, you must  protect and maintain them. If you want your parents to protect and love you, you must also learn to reciprocate the same. If you want DHARMA to protect you, you must protect it. Only when you adore Righteousness, it will protect you.

21. GOOD MEMORY and GOOD HANDWRITING are the KEY TO SUCCESS. Copying good habits is not a sin.

22. Learn to work systematically, meticulously and record your work promptly.

23. HAVE FAITH IN YOU.

REMEMBER