CREATIVITY OR INTELLIGENCE?


by Richard Austin Speaking of Success


Creativity comes in many forms. Most of us, if asked to name creative people, would immediately start mentioning writers, painters, sculptures, musicians, actors, and actresses. That’s natural. We recognize these creative talents immediately.. We even devote schools and advanced degrees to them. Rhode Island School of Design. Berklee College of Music. Emory University.


California


Institute of the Arts. Juilliard. This list covers the creativeness that society tells us is important; and of course, it is. But what about other types of creativity?


around it, ruminate, and then come up with a solution. In most cases I would have just hit it with a hammer.


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Robert E. Franken, in Human Motivation, defines creativity as “… the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others and entertaining ourselves and others.” Another field of study relates creativity with intelligence. Howard Gardner, in Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences postulated up to 9 types of intelligences. Several of these are what we would expect. Musical Intelligence, Logical- Mathematical Intelligence, Intra-Personal Intelligence (philosophers, psychologists, spiritual leaders), and Linguistic Intelligence (novelist, translators, poets). Other types that may not readily come to mind include Naturalist Intelligence (nature smart), Body-Kinesthetic Intelligence (think Michael Jordan), and Spatial Intelligence (the ability to think in three dimensions – sailors, pilots, sculptors, and architects). I worked with a carpenter for a while and was always amazed at his ability to look at a difficult repair or restoration, walk


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Everyone has some type of creativity lurking inside. The lucky ones find it and use it. Some don’t. Part of the reason creativity often goes unrecognized is because society doesn’t value it. Our educational system is designed to recognize, teach, and reward a limited range of creativity. The SATs score for mathematics, critical


reading, and


writing. Although other types of intelligences, or creativity may help boost, in an ancillary way, these three scores, in themselves, they often go unrecognized and unappreciated.


As a creative community, we need to be aware of all types of creativity. We need to learn


how to recognize them, appreciate them, support them and promote them. Above all we need to value them. Publications, or communities, such as RI Creative Magazine are poised to be a force in the encouragement and promotion of all types of creativity.


“Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy


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