Nicholas Busch

Dr. K. Veblen
Music 1800
19/10/2015
Brinkman, D. J. (2010). Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. Arts
Education Policy Review, 111(2), 48-50. Doi:10.1080/10632910903455785
This reading was very interesting to me. For a long time Ive been
questioning what creativity really is and if Im actually being creative in my
work instead of just remodelling someone elses creativity. I never considered
the idea that you can be creative in your everyday life by just doing
something different every day and changing your routine slightly. This idea
has enlightened me and I completely agree that the little c has a direct
influence on the Big C.
I agree with Brinkmans third point, Creativity takes time. Although we
may have flashes of insight, it takes time to work out the uses and
implications of that insight, but this is something that frustrates me for two
reasons: Ive encountered this so many times before, and it is very tough to
overcome. The second reason is that this is the point at which most
potentially creative people give up, which ties in with Brinkmans second
point about the traits of a creative person: Some of those [traits] include the
willingness to take risks and persistence. The fact that many people dont
have the persistence factor really limits the creativity of that person, which
can be very frustrating to think about given the amount of people that have
given up something because of impatience.

Brinkman quotes Amabiles criteria of creativity in the workplace as

expertise, creative thinking skills, and motivation, which make perfect
sense and can be applied not only in the workplace, but in many other
aspects of life. In the classroom, expertise and motivation are provided by
the teacher, but the creative thinking skills are provided by the student. The
teacher may nourish the creative thinking using motivation but ultimately it
is up to the student. Similarly, when working alone the expertise and creative
thinking are provided by yourself but the motivation can be lacking.
Ultimately, you need to provide your own motivation, and again this is where
some people fall behind, which is frustrating.
If I had the chance to talk to Brinkman Id ask him if there is any other
fundamental quality he would add to describe a creative person. He explains
with sources very well what the outline should be, but there are many more
personality traits than having the expertise, creative thinking ability, and
motivation that could tie in to the basis of a creative person. I would also ask
him if he considered fully the consequences of not using standardized testing
in music classrooms. I agree that there are many ways to interpret art
(especially music) but there are certain fundamentals that need to be taught
in every music classroom, namely theory. Although many aspects of music
needs careful consideration to be graded, concepts like these can be easily
marked with standardized tests.