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
