Permission Slip for Creativity

Sitting across the table from the illustrious Stephen Hurley, I was deeply enthralled in our discussion of all things education. He raised so many important questions, and our conversation went in directions that I look forward to continuing to pursue. Among them is one I cannot get out of my head. At one point, Stephen asked, “Where did you get the permission?” He was referring to the projects that I created along with the Building Outside the Blocks approach. At first, being a pleaser, I was worried that I had done something wrong signalled by the burning anxious feeling that welled up in my chest. Then, that feeling dissipated leaving room for wonder. Where did I get permission to build outside the blocks?

When I was in university, I believe it was my Philosophy of Art professor, Dr Dennis Hudecki, who introduced us to The Courage to Create by Rollo May. It was one of those books that stays with you. Thinking back on some of what I took away, I reflected on the necessity of struggle that the collection of essays asserts along with the factors that feed creativity. When I was trying to recall some of the text, I came upon this article by Dr. Joaquin Krueger in Psychology Today. Krueger refers to the author saying, "May does not see the presence of challenges and constraints as something bad, but as essential to the creative process." Is Building Outside the Blocks just a reflection of the nature of creativity?

I have always been the kind of person who uses parameters for inspiration. They provide me with a framework from which I can be creative but they also ground my practice. Every project that I can recall, from to elementary all the way up to graduate school, reflected my imagination. I could always find a unique angle to meeting the assignment requirements. Whether it was writing a rap instead of a speech, creating Math centres for my practicum that included an original recording of songs, or a project where I created a piece of art that wove my life’s story through a tree for a narrative project, I use the “blocks” as a catalyst for my imagination.

When the Ontario Curriculum came to be, people were shaken by the daunting task of meeting all of the expectations. I, too, was overwhelmed, but I began to enjoy the map and found ways to create new roads. The curriculum in Language Arts, for example, is mostly skill-based, so it is naturally exciting because it leaves so much room for the teacher to weave many colourful tapestries for developing those skills. The Social Studies, History or Geography curricula, instead, is content based. Even though there are big ideas that infer a more conceptual understanding, the laundry list of content can feel confining. Those requirements don’t have to be an end. They can be the conduit through which students learn skills while connecting to the world and themselves. Those seeming constraints can be a hub of creativity.

When BOB (Building Outside the Blocks) was first defined, I didn’t know that I was creating something different. I was just being myself through my teaching and trying to make the work relevant to my students. I hadn't realized that I was finding ways to shake up learning or create a learning community. I had also never considered what I was doing as something particularly creative or original. I was just finding inroads for my students, which is what I perceived teaching to be about. When my then faculty coach and now mentor and friend, Ricki Wortzman, asked me what I was doing to engage my Science students, which was a fear I faced with every tool I had, I answered her candidly. No one had ever asked me that before, and my gut response was, "Building outside the blocks." As I have shared previously, it took me over a month to figure out what I had meant by that and to determine that it was the perfect umbrella for who I was as a teacher and person. I even realized that there was a common thread with all my projects that I call the BOB approach.

This approach has helped my students learn, grow and, often, shine. My projects are invitations for students to develop original products, use edtech, and bring pieces of themselves to the classroom where we all benefit and learn from each other. BOBs provide clear parameters but all the room for wherever a student's imagination takes them. They are permission slips for creativity.

I am on this new adventure in my professional growth and sense of self direction. I don’t know where this "walk about" will take me, but I am excited about whatever comes. I do, however, question whether this new freedom will liberate me or, without the blocks, will I still have the boundaries from which to construct something new. I have chosen to error on the side of hope and believe in myself. When I turn my fear to fuel, it launches my creative processes.

Be you! I tell this to my students all the time in many different ways. Now, I am giving myself permission to live my creed. It’s like how the cobbler’s children go barefoot. I am good at guiding others and showing them the sunshine, so I'm going to follow my own advice. I have made a commitment to myself to be me, unapologetically, and say yes to everything I want to try. Maybe building outside the blocks is a double entendre. I wonder which constrictions have been self imposed and which others are endemic to the profession.

There are so many amazing educators out there. Who gave them permission? Going back to Stephen's question, I allowed myself to be creative. Good leaders do that, too. They open up the possibilities for others. That is what building capacity means. I return to the words of Dr. Krueger who wrote, "Without limitations or constraints, the creative capacities of mind have nothing to guide them, no problem to solve, no barrier to overcome." So, now that I have overcome certain constrictions, I have begun an inquiry into some of the others in education and will continue giving myself permission to build outside the blocks, wherever it takes me.