During May, I enjoyed teaching a two-week creativity course to the high school students at the Columbus School for Girls.
After the third class, my daughter — one of the students — said, "Dad, you’re missing something here."
"What’s that?" I asked.
She said: "You’re used to teaching adults."
It’s true. I teach young people as if they are adults. It’s my way of showing them respect, not speaking down to them.
I always remember when our daughter, then three years old, brought me a crayon and asked the name of the color. The wrapper said "Fuchsia," but I almost said, "Red."
I paused and realized that she’s not afraid of the word fuchsia. I might be afraid of fuchsia, but she’s not. So I said, "Fuchsia."
"Fuchsia!" she said, walking away delighted.
"You are used to teaching 40-year -old businesspeople how to recover their creativity," she explained. That’s great. They need that.
"But we don’t. We’re kids. We haven’t lost our creativity." The next day in class, she described her thoughts more fully:
We have times when we are very serious and goal-oriented. That’s during class and during study time. We are focused on learning and preparing for college. It’s very serious.
But we also have other time, very specific time, when fun is our only goal. It’s recess or lunch. It’s a time for creativity and we embrace it.
We literally have bells that ring to tell us it’s time for creativity. Bells that ring!
It was as if they were leaving baggage claim with their bags and I was trying to get them to file for lost luggage.
So what is my goal when I teach young people about creativity?
How to continue living creatively when the bells stop ringing.
Because the bells do stop ringing.
Are you ringing your own bell?