Week_1ExaminingAssumptions

Examining Assumptions about Literature, the Arts, and Creativity

Steps:
  1. First, review the quotes below.
  2. Then, take note of any that provoke a particularly strong reaction in you, perhaps where you appreciate what is being said, or else where you feel resistance to it. In either case, can you think of any counterarguments or counterexamples that might be posed to the author of that quote?
  3. Then, recall any personal experiences that come to mind that might be contributing to your strong reaction (including, how you were "taught" literature/arts in early school years, or how you may have been encouraged (or not) to participate in these areas. How have these experiences led to basic assumptions or core beliefs that you now hold about the place of literature/arts in your life?
  4. Make notes on the answers to the questions in preparation of further discussion.


Quotes:

1 “We need people who think with the creative side of their brains—people who have played in a band, who have painted…it enhances symbiotic thinking capabilities, not always thinking in the same paradigm, learning how to kick-start a new idea, or how to get a job done better, less expensively.”

2 “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have lots of dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solution without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”

3 Why literature is important, or why art matters.
1. Literature represents the endurance of an interpretation, ideas that are fixed
2. Literature is important for the same reasons art is important–it’s a reflection of the world as seen through the eyes of the artist (or writer, as interpreter)
3. Like art, provides a solidification, a product, a symbol made tangible, and as a product (intellectual), informs us, and sometimes the directions our lives take. In this solidification, literature, art, are like architecture, which
4. Having become tangible, become usable, functional (but not in a merely utilitarian sense).
5. And in this solidification into permanence, there is recapitulation, i.e., the possibility of the intellectual product to inform future generations over time.

4 “An elementary school that treats the arts as the province of a few gifted children, or views them only as recreation and entertainment, is a school that needs an infusion of soul. That arts are an essential element of education, just like reading, writing, and arithmetic.”

5 ". . . the arts have been an inseparable part of the human journey; indeed, we depend on the arts to carry us toward the fullness of our humanity. We value them for themselves, and because we do, we believe knowing and practicing them is fundamental to the healthy development of our children's minds and spirits. That is why, in any civilization - ours included - the arts are inseparable from the very meaning of the term 'education.' We know from long experience that no one can claim to be truly educated who lacks basic knowledge and skills in the arts."

6 If you have time, continue reviewing the comments made on the following page, compiled by the US agency, the National Endowment for the Arts:
https://www.arts.gov/art-works/2015/why-arts-matter