“People want to be told what to do because they are afraid (petrified) of figuring it out for themselves.”

and

“It's easy to buy a cookbook (filled with instructions to follow) but really hard to find a chef book.”

Nothing to add to the conversation, just wanted to point out some great quotes I will be using for the rest of my life.

You know – like a fortune teller who speaks in generalities so that you can believe what they are saying is about you?

For years I have tried to grow the creativity of my camp staff. In leadership we talk about some staff having the “It” factor. Over years of thinking, reading and studying about leadership I have come to believe that the “It” factor has more to do with creativity than anything else.

School (college/university/high school) should be about learning how to learn. This is a concept covered in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. We are training our children for jobs that don't exist today, but if we teach them how to learn they can continue to learn and become lifelong learners. That is the goal.

The staff who seemed to have the hardest time talked about directors who were bureaucratic (sometimes autocratic) in their decision-making. They complained about favoritism and about not being trusted by their camp directors.

This quote hits it home for me. If presumably Godin is arguing that the system has trained people to follow the rules, to fit in, to succeed by being obedient, then there has been some shortcoming in the education system.

That brings up the point of summer camp being an invaluable experience for children as campers, and also for young adults as staff members. To me, Camp provides people with the freedom to figure out problems, situations, and relationships on their own.

The jobs that we all have done and continue to do working at Camp have the qualities of creating art. To name a few:
-creating emotional connection with people
-improvising
-taking initiative
-being a leader
-taking risk
-learning from experience, and applying what you learned to the next creation

I am grateful for my experiences in Camp as they have no doubt helped to shape the artist that I am today. I do believe we can teach people to be indispensable and remarkable, and we can do this by guiding them, trusting them, and encouraging them to take initiative, and “do the work” on their own.

Piggybacking on the work of Gallup and Marcus Buckingham, Jennifer Fox is teaching kids about their strengths http://www.strengthsmovement.com.

I don't necessarily think we teach creativity as much as we help bring out the areas of someone strengths. We can't put in what is not there. As Scott Porad taught me, “You can't teach tall.” We foster the identification and naming of it more than we teach it.

It's certainly true that classes go more smoothly when your students are able and willing to sit quietly. I want them to turn in their homework on time. I expect that homework to adhere to the requirements I set out for them. Do I produce cogs that way? Maybe.

Do any of you folks have camp staff from rec programs? Are you finding that they bring useful skills that help them be more creative staff members? Or is there any difference? The kind of creativity that Godin is urging, can it be taught? Can it only be stifled in the classroom, or can it be fostered?

I instantly thought of our yoga program. In 2004 we started a yoga program and we had an insanely caring yoga instructor that people loved to be around. She was literally booked almost anytime of the day. In 2005, we had a yoga instructor that became bitter and resentful at camp. Yoga was barely used that summer. In hiring yoga instructors from 2006 on, we recognized how we need to make the effort to hire a high quality applicant.