Get Smart

Want to get smarter? Here's some tips I gleaned from a passionate discussion between homeschool moms over the summer. See if you agree or disagree.

1. Read. Pick up books and dive into subjects which fascinate you. Read, study, and ponder things you love...quilting, business marketing, gardening, calculus, photography, dog training, biographies, education, creativity(!) human development, Biblical truth, writing, foreign languages, quantum physics...whatever your passion...follow it. Read deeply in a subject and read widely across a number of subjects. Read authors you agree with and authors you don't agree with.

The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. - Mark Twain

2. Process your thoughts. Write...journal, blog, or write papers only for yourself. Educated people in the days of Thomas Jefferson kept a book in which they wrote thoughts, notes from their daily reading, questions, observations, and ideas. They called it a commonplace book. Writing is a good way to think through a maze of thoughts. Remember, your writing doesn't have to be for anyone else but you. Talk to others. Listen. Think. Muse. Or as my horse-trainer mentor said, 'observe, remember, compare.'

Writing is thinking on paper.-William Zinsser

3. Experience. Get up and do something. Actually learning to rock climb, salsa dance, or how to hold a paint brush activates more brain cells than reading about it. Travel often. Experiencing new cultures (even within our great country) expands your knowledge base and gives insight.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. ~Mark Twain

4. Ask questions. This is two actually, because you must really listen for answers. Too much of the time, we only half listen to each other's conversation because we are busy thinking about we are going to say. Today, listen carefully and completely to other people.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. Albert Einstein

There is no such thing as a stupid question; only stupid mistakes made because you didn't ask the stupid question. Charles J. Lewis

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen. Ernest Hemingway

5. Quit doing stupid. The laugh out loud moment for me in the discussion came when someone suggested the best way to get smart was to quit doing stupid things. Like, for example, watching too much TV, playing video games, or spending too much time twittering. Obvious and oh, so true.

Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them. ~Confucius, Analects

What do you think about these? What would you add to the list? How does getting smart affect your creativity?

Who Killed Your Creativity?

Belle Blanc Datura blooms opening at twilight

A recent issue of Scientific American Mind had a fascinating article on creativity. A panel of creativity experts gave their thoughts on the subject. (This interview is included in the text of my current book of the month, 'Brainstorm.' See the sidebar for a link.)

One of my favorite quotes was from Robert Epstein, professor and author.

"When children are very young, they all express creativity, but by the end of the first grade, very few do so. This is because of socialization. They learn in school to stay on task and to stop daydreaming and asking silly questions. As a result, the expression of new ideas is largely shut down. We end up leaving creative expression to the misfits--the people who can't be socialized. It's a tragedy."

A couple of things struck me about this quote. First, a memory. My oldest son was sent to the Principal's office in first grade for coloring outside the lines.

Principal's office.

Coloring outside the lines.

In first grade.

Yes, really.

While I understand that you can color with 'attitude', it was a revealing and infuriating moment when I read the note. I was a professional photographic artist and couldn't believe the sheer audacity of a teacher unable to manage a classroom resorting to this kind of control. This said more about the teacher than my son. Based on that alone, Epstein's quote rang bells with me.

Have you ever heard Harry Chapin's song, 'Flowers Are Red?" The lyrics are a powerful story of creative drive destroyed in the name of conformity. Chapin wrote the song after a teacher wrote on his son's report card...'Your son marches to the beat of a different drummer, but don't worry, we'll have him joining our parade before the end of the year.'

Ack!

I also loved what Epstein said about leaving creativity to the ones who can't be socialized. I would have rather he said *won't* be socialized. To those who choose to follow the beat of the inner drummer rather than conform to the lockstep of the rest of the world. Untamed. Not fully domesticated. You don't have to be weird or anti-social to be creative, but you do have to be self aware and willing to take the time to listen to your heart. Once you've listened to the beat of your own heart, you must be willing to follow the path it leads you on.

We are social creatures. I'm a child of God. I want to please him in what I do. As a society, we have laws and morals that must be followed for the good of that society. I'm not saying get rid of that. I'm saying why do we have to subject our children to rigid standardized testing? Why can't there be more open ended explorations of passions in our youth? This is where homeschoolers have a serious advantage. We can avoid the tests and encourage the heart's desires for years after the public schools have pushed other children into molds.

But we are adults now with creative hearts and creative souls. And years of conformity dragging behind us. Our lives are filled with responsibilities. Joyful ones, true, but some that are not so joy filled. Why are there so many 'shoulds' and not nearly enough 'what-ifs?'

Why can't we think a bit more like the Queen in 'Alice in Wonderland?'

Alice begins...
“One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

In what ways has someone squashed or fostered your creative soul? In what ways can you foster a creative spirit in someone else? What bold and daring creative endeavor would you start if you were brave enough?

Believe impossible things.

Be brave.

Create.


Belle Blanc Datura Fully Flowered

Changes

Change is hard.

Two homeschooling message boards where I frequent changed formats this month, within a couple of weeks of each other. Homeschoolers may be avant gard in many respects, but wow oh wow, do we get set in our ways, too. The changes were drastic on those boards and so was the reaction. Many posters took to the new formats like returning fish long separated from the sea. Others were more like fish yanked from their comfortable waters. There was a whole lot of wailing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Some women posted that they were too *old* to learn something new. Shocking, I know. Mostly because most of them are younger than I am. LOL

All the turmoil, plus a Bible study I'm leading, got to me thinking about change.

The first kind of change is the simplest, like loose change in your pocket. All those dimes, quarters, nickels, and pennies don't seem important, but they can add up significantly. Early in our marriage, I worked a year in a bank. One fella brought in bags of coins to run through our coin sorter/counter. At the end of the process, he had over a thousand dollars to deposit in his account. He had tossed his loose change into a container every day for several years. Not only had it added up, it had made a serious impact on his bank account.

Little changes add up in our lives, too. Parking at the other end of the parking lot, so we get a few more steps into our day. Cutting out one negative thing from our diets may help us loose a few pounds over time. Dropping an encouraging card to a friend boosts both of you and requires little time. Spending fifteen minutes a day studying a topic can make you an expert in twenty years.

An example of a second type of change is a pickle. You know how pickles start out, don't you? As a cucumber. I spent one summer a few years ago, pickling everything from our huge garden. Cucumbers, squash, okra...all got dumped into various chemical concoctions to transform them into spicy, savory bites of flavor with outstanding results.

But the cucumber doesn't get to choose this kind of change. Outside change is hard for us...this is the cancer diagnosis, the pink slip, the divorce, the car accident, a move, a death. All those forces work on you and change you whether you like it or not, but what is the alternative? You have to cope. Hopefully, you learn, grow, and conquer, too. None of it is easy, but the result, hopefully, is becoming a person of compassion, depth, courage, character, and strength.

The last type of change is the internal transformation. In my women's Bible study, we are studying allowing God to change us from the inside out. As our symbol of this change, we are using a butterfly. From ugly human caterpillar, to graceful, beautiful butterfly, we hope to emulate the same type of metamorphosis in our spirit. This change often takes some cocoon time, some effort, and a serious re-prioritizing our actions, thoughts, and goals. I also believe it takes the Creator's touch to fully achieve.


We don't like change. That is unless *we* are in control of the change. Control, however, is an elusive thing. Often grasped at, but seldom grasped. We chuckle ruefully over maxims like 'nothing is constant, except change' but know in our hearts that there is truth there. It often seems that we are one heartbeat away from falling into the pickle vat. Have courage. Whether you are weighted down by lots of nagging changes, whether you find yourself in a 'pickle' of some sort or whether you already have unfurled your butterfly wings, remember this bit of wisdom...Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Change is growth. Just like a plant is stimulated to grow after being pruned, we realize we can grow in new directions after significant changes, too. Never give up growing and learning. Never become too old to change. This world needs more people of compassion, wisdom, joy, and strength.