by Douglas E. Gordon, Hon. AIA
Executive Editor
Reading the Doer’s Profile on Daniel Ferrara got me to thinking about a presentation at the Grassroots Leadership and Legislative Conference here in Washington last month. The speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, was making the point that intelligence and creativity are inseparably linked. Although academics spend a lot of time endeavoring to measure and develop intelligence, there is not enough attention to developing creativity with the same zeal—and to meet the needs of an unknowable 50-year-out future, it should be, he argued.
To make a point, Sir Ken asked the audience of AIA members and chapter executives to rate themselves, by show of hands, counting down from 10 (most creative) to 1. He followed that up with a countdown for intelligence. In a room jammed with people undoubtedly at the top of the scale for both, most of the 800 or so attendees rated themselves a 6 or 7. The point Robinson was trying to make is that as we get older, we tend to lose confidence in our own abilities.
To further drive it in, he told the story of a five-year-old girl drawing in class. The teacher asks her what she’s drawing. “God,” the girl replies. “But nobody knows what God looks like,” says the teacher. The girl just smiles: “They will in a minute.”
To his credit, Daniel Ferrara apparently has a lot of confidence in his creativity and intelligence. Do you?
What do you think?
Comments (2)
I believe that creativity is a type of intelligence, and thus agree with Robinson's assertion that creativity and intelligence are inseparably linked. Howard Gardner makes a compelling argument for "multiple intelligences" (_Frames of Mind. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences_) noting that humans posses a set or unique blend of various types of intelligence.
Unfortunately, the educational system in the US predominantly addresses intelligence in very narrow terms; a sort of one-size-fits-all, for both teaching and assessment (standardized testing). Those students whose dominant intelligence matches these standardized methodologies will excel, while those with different intelligences often struggle to conform or simply fail. It is refreshing to see that an increasing number of schools are redefining teaching strategies to meet the unique needs of individual students, but there is still much to be done.
I suspect that many architects and design professionals were compelled to subdue their “creative” strengths in order to make it through their American educations. These account for the Grassroots attendees who likely rated themselves lower than they should have. I also suspect that an unfortunately smaller group of these professionals “bucked the system” throughout their education. These may be the attendees who ranked themselves, appropriately, as being highly creative, say 9’s and 10’s.
As architects, our work engages many facets of our brains and our personalities, and our mission is to create a better built environment. The work of Howard Gardner seems particularly relevant because his work has been marked by a desire not to just describe the world but to help to create the conditions to change it. In 1999 he wrote, "I want children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place. Knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions. An important part of that understanding is knowing who we are and what we can do."
Posted by Amy Yurko | March 23, 2007 1:02 PM
Posted on March 23, 2007 13:02
Yes, I am very creative. I believe that every human being is totally creative at birth and our educational system teaches that out of us very quickly. I don't know how or why, but I see it every day. I know very few adults who see themselves as creative. It is mostly a matter of self-confidence--the belief that you are a creative problem-solver. And then it involves action--get busy and change your world!
Posted by Marjorie Serrano | March 9, 2007 6:42 PM
Posted on March 9, 2007 18:42