My Philosophy About Creativity.

Creativity is a unique ability of all human beings. Creativity can be fostered and grown. Creativity, like a living plant, needs to be cared for. It needs attention, nurture, and intentionality. Creativity can be found in and influenced by people, products, places, and the environments in which all humans operate in. Creativity's basic components are: Fluency (the ability to generate quantities of ideas); Flexibility (the ability to create different categories of ideas, and to perceive an idea from different points of view); Originality (the ability to generate new, different, and unique ideas that others are not likely to generate), and; Elaboration (the ability to expand on an idea by embellishing it with details or the ability to create an intricate plan). Creativity is the generation of novel ideas that offer unique value in a particular place and time. While some scholars believe to be creative you must be recognized by society or receive numerous awards of recognition, creativity all starts with an individual's own belief in their ideas and themselves.

Definitions of Creativity.

MEL RHODES  "Isn't creativity, in simple language, the process of reorganizing knowledge (general or specific knowledge), and of articulating that synthesis so that other people can under stand the meaning. Also, I thought, haven't I in this instance visualized the key to the secret nature of creativity? That secret being that original ideas are the by-products of (1) a human mind grasp ing the elements of a subject, (2) of prolonged thinking about the parts and their relationships to each other and to the whole, and (3) of sustained effort in working over the synthesis so that it can be embodied or articulated competently. "What is creativity?", is this: The word creativity is a noun naming the phenomenon in which a person communicates a new concept (which is the product). Mental activity (or mental process) is implicit in the definition, and of course no one could conceive of a person living or operating in a vacuum, so the term press is also implicit."
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–Rhodes, M. (1961). An analysis of creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, (42)7, 305–310.

E Paul Torrance "There are many definitions of creativity and each of them adds an insight about the concept. However, I have found three that I have found especially helpful: a research definition, an artistic definition, and a survival definition...I tried to describe creative thinking as the process of sensing difficulties, problems, gaps in information, missing elements, something askew; making guesses and formulating hypotheses about these deficiencies, evaluating and testing these guesses and hypotheses; possibly revising and retesting them; and finally communicating the results...Perhaps even more useful than my research definition has been my "artistic" definition....To make definitions really meaningful, one has to look on them as analogies. • Creativity is like wanting to know. • Creativity is like digging deeper. • Creativity is like looking twice. • Creativity is like listening to smells. • Creativity is like listening to a cat. • Creativity is like crossing out mistakes. • Creativity is like getting in deep water. • Creativity is like having a ball.• Creativity is like cutting holes to see through. • Creativity is like cutting corners. • Creativity is like plugging in the sun. • Creativity is like building sand castles. • Creativity is like singing in your own key. • Creativity is like shaking hands with tomorrow. My briefest and in some ways most satisfactory definition of creativity is what I refer to as my survival definition: When a person has no learned or practiced solution to a problem, some degree of creativity is required."

–Shaughnessy, M. F. (1998). An interview with E. Paul. Torrance: About creativity. Educational Psychology Review, (10)4, 441–452.

A Little About
​Myself.

I am a lifelong creativity addict. My personal creativity includes creative thinking, playing multiple musical instruments, graphic design, interior design, and process improvement from the end-users' point of view. I am currently the administrator for a progressive play-based preschool in Palo Alto, a role I have been in for over 10 years. We know the early years of human development are the open window to begin engaging with creative thinking, growth mindset, self efficacy, and emotional intelligence. Prior to this career expression I have had the responsibility of being a communication director, busboy, graphic designer, general manager, sales representative, paperboy, ice cream scooper, customer service manager, marketing director, and student. I am a life long learner and am currently enrolled in the Creativity and Change Leadership masters program at Buffalo State in New York.

Get In Touch.
If you are interested in learning more about creativity and how to allow more of it into your life, workplace, or curriculum, I would be happy to talk with you.