A group of Professors from the Japanese University affiliated with my school popped by to conduct a research on creative education. Cinthia and I were thus invited by a very persistent Ms Joan, to provide insight on this topic.
The Japanese ladies; fair and poised were aided by yet another Professor from the National Institute of Education to translate our views. Though conversation was strained and forced at times, there were sparks of brilliance.
The freezing room comprised of advance dip students, some of which I recognized or knew. Some spoke with thick slangs that made me wonder what the hell was wrong with being local.
Does speaking to Professors warrant slangs?
Will it make you look smarter?
And boy, did the people with slangs talk and talk and talk and talk. I even noticed one of the Profs eyes glaze over as she started to pout.
Shuttup already!
When asked what creativity meant to us, one student expressed it as being brave enough showcase what you had to offer. Cool!
I interpreted it as an individual opinion. If I felt what I did was creative, then it is. Cause what applies to me may not apply to someone else.
When asked what emotion or feeling we associated with creativity, I simply answered ‘happy’. Hurhur.. its as simple as that, because I feel I need to be happy in order to be creative. I’m destructive when I’m angry.
Some people went on and on and on like energizer rabbits and ran totally off tangent with their rants. If looks could kill, Cinthia's stares would have left gapping stab wounds.
Finally, they asked what we felt was different between creative education and non-creative education. I replied:
‘non-creative education is route learning. Learning a set of skills that requires me to memorize and vomit out in an examination. Whereas creative education is learning the same set of skills but allowing me to be able to manipulate it into different scenarios.’
Cinthia also said that non-creative education doesn’t deserve such a beating from everyone because again, it can be interpreted differently to everyone and regular education doesn’t mean we stop being creative.
Power.
After a series of 10 questions, they opened the floor to questions. As it was late in the evening, everyone wanted to rush off into the sunset, complete with dinner plans and what-nots, but the Professor kept looking at me because maybe it would have been rude or we would seem disinterested if nobody asked?
I just asked:
“so.. what do you feel you did creatively to research this topic on creative education?”
People broke into laughter and the Prof from NIE lamented between guffaws it was extremely difficult to translate my question. Hahaha.. The Japanese Profs replied that other researchers normally used conventional methods like surveys which would not have been able to garner such spontaneous answers and I congratulated them for their creativity and hard work.
Calling the interview to its end, they handed out tokens of appreciation to the participants and bowed as we exited.
Super courteous! My SNM should learn from them! Or would my hospital like to send me to Japan?! Please.. please.. please..
