Okay, I'm a teacher and a student. At this time in the semester, I'm both writing and grading papers. I encourage my students to be creative and original in their work, but at the same time I am forced to place limits on their creativity. (I'm under a certain departmental obligation to have my students write certain types of papers and produce a certain number of pages during the course of a semester.) I want my students to have freedom with their thoughts and writing, but at the same time I also realize that I will eventually be grading their work. Creativity gets rewarded, but creativity must also operate within certain limitations. Similarly, I struggle to find the balance between creativity and academic accessibility within my own writing. I can produce scholarly work on John Wayne or The Matrix, but that type of work typically isn't seen as acceptable in my discourse community (it isn't 'academic' enough). Thus we're stuck...we're encouraged to be original, to try new things, to think outside of that awful metaphorical box, but then we are punished--or at least not rewarded--when we're finally able to come up with something new and fun and original.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
A Commentary on Creativity
Okay, I'm a teacher and a student. At this time in the semester, I'm both writing and grading papers. I encourage my students to be creative and original in their work, but at the same time I am forced to place limits on their creativity. (I'm under a certain departmental obligation to have my students write certain types of papers and produce a certain number of pages during the course of a semester.) I want my students to have freedom with their thoughts and writing, but at the same time I also realize that I will eventually be grading their work. Creativity gets rewarded, but creativity must also operate within certain limitations. Similarly, I struggle to find the balance between creativity and academic accessibility within my own writing. I can produce scholarly work on John Wayne or The Matrix, but that type of work typically isn't seen as acceptable in my discourse community (it isn't 'academic' enough). Thus we're stuck...we're encouraged to be original, to try new things, to think outside of that awful metaphorical box, but then we are punished--or at least not rewarded--when we're finally able to come up with something new and fun and original.
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2 comments:
Hmmmm... An interesting conundrum. If you really disapprove of the restrictions on academic permissibility, you can actively subvert them in your role as a teacher. You can encourage your students to let their imaginations soar, and reward them for such, offering the caveat that many other teachers would see things differently. This would have the dual effect of letting them know that creativity is a positive quality appreciated by at least some people, and it would enshrine yourself in their minds as the Coolest Teacher Ever! (And of course, it's just fun to be subversive for a good cause!)
Well, yes and no. (Yes in the theory. No in the practice.) As a GTA I'm under certain restrictions as a teacher; I'm required to adhere to departmental policies and have my students produce certain types of writing. Someday though, someday....
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