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IYO txtng = NME or NBD. What the heck? Modern short-hand or a crisis of culture. Check into this week's program and decide for yourself.
Only time will truly tell, but the era of instant everything doesn't appear right now to be the era of ingenuity, but then we don't always see the forest for the trees. Read on and please weigh in with your comment at the end.
This week comments: 126, this week visitors: 101
Provocative piece on creativity. Text messaging is neither good nor bad, just as a gun is neither good nor bad. It depends on what you do with it and what people might otherwise do with their time and talent.
Key to understanding any new technology, trend or movement is to understand and appreciate it for what it can do and what we can learn from it.
Online gaming, for example, teaches us a lot about how the brain rewards certain behavior, and how gamers value social rewards that come from both collaboration and competition. Rotary can learn a lot about rewarding effort, clear and frequent feedback, a mix of short and long term goals, elements of uncertainty and confidence building.
For more, see Tom Chatfield's presentation at www.ted.com
Interesting
I am an aging Rotarian but not as pessimistic as this author about the creativity (linguistic or otherwise) of younger people. I am no fan of texting but text-language is just another dialect within the larger framework of English (for texters who speak English). Not all languages use the same syntax as ours but they communicate just as well.
Enjoyed the Rotary Minute section-thanks for a great meeting!
Great article. As a high school principal, I find much here worth sharing. Thanks.
I agree that our children aren't taught to problem solve. I think it has a lot to do with society and instant gratification. Rather than trying to work with what we have and within set limits, we just purchase an item that someone else has created. I see it in my own that they don't want to stretch their imaginations and work for something. This program was verying enlightening. We see every day where the arts and creativity are not supported because of negative press. Thanks for sharing this view point.
I agree whole-heartedly on the points of this program. The future of success and mental health concerns me. I am a very creative thinking brain stormer and I guess thats GOOD news!!
The eye of the beholder. The kids of today will face many different and extremely difficult challenges. Maybe the short brief language will help them win the battles of their time.
Individually, we need to learn the lesson of stimulation of our creativity. It should be what drives us.
Well, in some regards I have to disagree. While some complain about the texting "language," was it not the creativity of the texters that came up with abbreviations? Did they not operate outside the rules? Look at the technology that allows us to attend an eClub meeting - to view videos, photos, etc. All of this stems from the creativity of those who had a vision - and created the reality.
The article on creativity is excellent. It, in my opinion, hits the mark. It is thought provoking and I am sending it to all of my supervisory staff.
Most interesting and thought provoking. In the fictional novel "Next" by Michael Crichton, one of the story lines is concerning a group of genetic engineers who have discovered a replicable gene most all "socialized" humans have … and decided it might be known as the "creativity gene." Real life fact or fiction?Mel
Very GOOD
It is interesting that some commentors are seeing some selections from Creativity: A Crisis in Our Time (and I, as an educator, would call that "partial content viewing"), which may have been the problem also of some of the sources mentioned, but I still say that there is a crisis.
Creativity is needed in seeing the context instead of some of the content. Texting is not the problem (which was said); it is the viewing of the world around the young person that may be the future problem. Many young people that I teach Art Appreciation to have never seen the neighborhood where they live. Without what the eye sees (unfettered by technology) and then added to what the mind has seen and now can conceive anew, there is no progress. It is not technology that is the problem (technology at any era is a tool); it is substituting virtual reality for real reality (like having an intimate love affair which ends in commitment and children while only texting the person, not touching the person). It is the human aspect of creativity that may be missing in the equation of some present lives (and if texting is substituting for things like face to face communication, there is something wrong). Texting is a tool; if it becomes an end in itself, it like any other over-indulgence. It was the Greeks who understood, "All thing in moderation" with a few escapes into extreme indulgence to make life have a little flavor. Texting does test the ingenuity of the mind (although it can); but let's not forget all the other senses which are essential to creative thought. Creativity is data gathering, incubation, enlightenment ('ah ha;) and formulation. You cannot jump over steps and be creative. Texting has for some become formulation and data gathering, but the incubation and enlightenment may be short-changed. But I am an artist who likes to see the products of my eye, mind and hand, whether it is visual, written or verbal (weighed against the masters of the past).
Wow, as a District school superintendent, I couldn't agree more. I am sending this Creativity: A crisis in our time article out to my stakeholders.
Respectfully,
Brett
I agree about the place of creativity in life, but I also feel that people are always worried about every new generation and how it is acting, learning, growing up. Today it's about texting.In my youth it was about television.
But because I am around young people all the time in my business and my Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation, I don't see a lack of creativity or an inability to see the world around them in today's kids. They see plenty. They travel globally at very young ages, and they are citizens of the world through social networks.
And in the 19th century Wordsworth wrote "heaven lies around its us in our infancy;shades of the prison house begin to close around the growing boy"
Interesting thoughts on life and creativity and why it is essential to mankinds progress.
Congratulations for the meeting!!!
“The Inspirational Thought” made me thinks that Martin Luther King would be more than happy for the actual president of the USA and not so much for many other things, there is a lot to do yet.
“The Rotary Minute” made me recall that, the eradication of the polio was the first campaign that unified all Rotarians of the world in one goal. Good for Dr. Carlos Canseco.
And “The Program” is something to think about.
creativity is something we need more of in this day and age....
I like that birthdays and anniversaries are being done by the week - a nice change, IMHO. ("In My Humble Opinion")As for the program, good food for thought as always, Joe! I do question exactly what data would yield "80% of our creative potential" and similar figures. I also do not buy that texting equates to a falling sky, any more than sticking children in front of a VCR-enabled TV or long stretches on a wired phone in days gone by produced disaster.Rather, any of these are the effects of a lack of communication in more personal spheres. It's not that the child is incapable, it's often that the parent doesn't bother (or is too tired to do so, etc.). Creativity is made possible, at least in part, through interaction, which argues for texting above the TV. Real creativity in any learning setting, whether a classroom or parent-child dialogue, comes from an encouragement to think in new ways, and allowing the child to enjoy what it means to see the world from new perspectives.To that end, the elimination of arts programs in schools is a very real worry, and it will make it more difficult for us to find the creative minds that will solve the problems of the future, IMHO. Rotarians are those who have dedicated themselves to solving problems, and hopefully, to have fun doing so, no matter the medium of communication.My two cents.
Thanks for the ideas on improving creativity. We need to improve not only in our clubs, but in all aspects of our daily lives.
Who we are and why we join Rotary is a key issue in our club. With the declining economy and hard times for all, it is a challenge to recruit and retain quality members. As our District Governor says, "I want real Rotarians, not just mebers on the roles". Rotary is a great organization and it's work and good will are felt world wide.
I was impressed with our perfect club attendance as reported to district. The second thing is I love inspirational quotes especially the ones by Dr. Robert Schuller. Thanks for the meeting and please remember to do somthing nice for someone this week
It is very valuable to us Rotarians keep these wonderful responses and record them in a fixed manner so that we can communicate at any time • What is Rotary?; Who are Rotarians? and What does Rotary do? Thanks
Excellent food for thought!
Thank you great meeting
Thought provoking.
A truly enlightening program. Thank you.
Definitely need to think creatively. Especially as we are pioneers of the internet-based-Rotary model. Seems like every issue that comes up demands creative thinking. .. the past solutions often aren't the best in this internet model.
Great information today!!
One of the things I found when my children were in high school is that creative thinking was regularly stifled, not infrequently punished, rarely tolerated and almost never encouraged. It was frustrating to encourage their creativity at home, knowing that the entire culture of their high school worked to crush it. It's a difficult task to show kids how to conform outwardly, but at the same time create an imaginative inner life. You must conform to do well in American society today, but to have a rich life, rather than a life of riches, you need to inspire your own creativity. I don't think that texting, in and of itself, stifles creativity. It's just a different way of relating to others than those of us over 40 are used to. It's when this kind of communication takes the place of, rather than parallels, human interaction that it becomes dangerous.
I have made ever effort to keep my cre8ivity. The program is very true about how we are forced into a thinking mode. Incourage creativity in the young whenever you see it.
Each time when I attend a meeting and Peace Education is been mentioned Ifeel very terrible....because i havent done much for global and local peace as I have trained by Rotary Foundation and Chula University. The training itself has become a burden on my weak shoulders. I spend time thinking and creating/developing project. Soon the peaceful instrument I was redesigned to will become my total way of Life. I will actively and positively be much more involve in conflict Resolution. The world will know more about TRF and Respect TRF because of my works very soon.
I would like to know if there is a way of creating proyects between two Rotary clubs in which one is an E-Club and the other is not. The reason for the question is because I belong to ROTARY CLUB REAL DE MINAS located in Teguciglapa , Honduras. In the past we have been able to make proyects with other Rotary Clubs located in the United States but none of them are E-Clubs.
Best Regards,
Victor Gutierrez
Not sure that lack of creativity is caused by testing. Seems like the failed esperiments of the educational system would be a larger factor. Good program!
Very refreshing and intriguing. Be sure to visit the CreatingMinds.org website.
Thanks for all the eye openers. On a different note, I am glad to be able to make the meeting when I can, my life has been in a tailspin and its reassuring to catch up with rotary across the world.
Picasso was a very nice touch
Always a pleasure to do a make-up with this club. I thoroughly enjoyed the video of the week - and did, in fact, watch it twice!
My home club, Vallejo, CA, is the best! We have a lot of fun with fellowship - you have to be thick-skinned to be in our club - we have long-standing visibility in the local community in a variety of areas.
Rotary is a fundamental part of my life - can't imagine how I got along without it!
Wow you see the numbers and I'm impressed...1.2 million memebers 200 countries since 1905 over 100 years and has contirbuted $500 million for 38,000 students from across the globe. This story of success is a recruitment to any and all that want to make a contribrution to solutions.
It make me proud . God bles you all.
The question remains...is texted a word...I think this was topical...an alternate topic would be creativity in 140 characters or less...
Texting has become a problem for our teenage society but is almost a necessary evil if you want to communicate nowadays.
easy to make up online!
The capacity for innovation and creativity is widespread in the population. Texting seems to be a form of natural social interaction akin to jungle calls.
Although not everyone wants change, innovators can change the world.
The program was very timely! I have worked in health care for thirty years and have long known the "use it or lose it" as it relates to all parts of our body, especially our brain. This program was exceptional!
I am so proud of the work that Rotary has done to redicate polio.
Intertesting thoughts regarding creativity and the formal education process.
I really enjoyed the Osteopathic medical students involvment in Rotary in Kirksville.
Thanks for the thoughtful reminder of Rotary's philosophical history and why we are Rotarians.
Super website. What a nice way to attend a meeting and make up for the one I missed with my own club!!
Attracting younger members is our greatest challenge. Finding ways to appeal to them is certainly going to take a lot of creative thinking on the part of todays clubs' leadership. Thanks for offering some thoughts for the future.
Great layout! Really like the Sgt At Arms feature, too!
Great to be able to access the program not only for this week, but also others from the past!
CONTINUES TO BE THE LARGEST MOST INFLUENTIAL iNTERNATIONAL HUMANITERIAN SERVICE ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD.
WE ARE THE "I,YOU, HE, SHE,WE"
Great program. I believe that today's generation has become one of getting everything done as fast as possible and sometimes ignore the details. It's very interesting what you can learn when you sit back and look around you. There are alot of thigs one can pick up on by being detailed oriented and doing things the "right" way.
Great program and a reminder to explore the possibilities our eClub provides to the world of Rotary.
n/a
Would be nice if the public school system could understand the connection between creativity and planning. Many of our schools have cut art programs, too. They just don't seem to see the importance. Really scary to think about the problems our kids will be faced with as adults. They need to be prepared to deal with them!
This is a wonderful program and as an educator I take the message to heart. I have two dreams. One is to introduce Rotary to China, and I wonder if our eclub could take this on. I have some candidates for membership. My second dream is to enhance traditional education through experiential learning. For example, I have a study tour of China coming up in January with both college students and adults. Would you like to join us?
Shelly Williams
saistype@aol.com
The article on Africa was especially poignant. As a history major, the article really struck a chord. Africa is one of the planets most valuable areas as far as resources, it is only through proper governance locally that Africa can realize her true potential as a world leader.
I really enjoyed this program. I missed my regular meeting today and this is the first time that I do a make-up online. I really enjoyed how the typed format was actually pretty much the way that a normal meeting would run. great job!
I am proud to be a rotarian.
Very good. It seems that those under 30 are "forced to follow the crowd" to be accepted and face to face conversations are a endangered species. Children's childhoods of innocence are a thing of the past and all of this gains us what! As a nation and people we need those who can lead, not just follow and to go places that others fear to go. We need thinkers not sheep!
Thank you for this opportunity, the meeting was quite informative.
Thanks for the opportunity to do club makeup. I am CEO for Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma and since our merger 2 years ago with 2 other Girl Scout Council on eastern side of Oklahoma, it is not always possible for me to attend our Tulsa Sunrise Rotary Club meetings. I liked this site. Jim Smiley is our recorder of attendance and his email is jbsmiley@juno.com
We have a wonderful club with over 100 Paul Harris donors and per capita raise more money for the Rotary Foundation than other clubs in the Country. Carol Orr is our Club President
another very interesting meeting,really makes you think,I lookforward every weekto my eclub meeting,it again tells you some of our best programs are from our own members.
Well, I was pulled out of my box again, wonderful meeting feel recharged to deal with problems that standard solutions were not being effective. Thank you again.
In my opinion, young people text because they are not taught to express themselves to other individuals; they are concerned about confrontation, rejection and repudiation; texting is non-confrontational and responses are easily ignored, unlike a personal conversation.
Kelly Nicholls' account of being a Rotary Peace Fellow was both moving and inspirational. The comparison of her wedding photos to those of young wives in Columbia was chilling.
Delighted to read this essay on creativity. I am a visual artist and teach workshops about painting and it is a miracle when someone opens up and lets art happen. In Rotary, the same applies that we need to open up to new possibilities ans watch how things unfold.
Great program! Thanks for letting me visit!
I've read that the average child in the 4th grade today will never use email or wear a wrist watch - the reasoning is that these are too slow of devices when txtng is availale and movile devices provide digital time. If this is true, will the world come to a stop in 20 - 30 years when a sunburst interrupts the electromagnetic fields and no mobile devices work? Becoming dependant upon technological devices may be bite us if we don't also retain the knowledge of 'how' to do things or 'think' for ourselves.
INTERESTING
Never thought of myself as creative. Not sure why. But life long disapointment is my inability to improvise playing jazz. Is that a lack of creativity or A lack of talent?
I enjoyed this week video and rest of the meeting
The insight on creativity should be revisited frequently as it inspires me to move pasted being an expert or living in a rut. What a fine reminder! Rotary inspires creativity since other Rotarians often join together to make dreams come true. Where else can a person find a group so ready to do what has only been dreamed. Sylvia Mahoney, Vernon Rotary Club, Texas
You guys have the EClub process fully developed. I found the Creativity Today program thought-provoking and exceptionally relevant to the Rotary experience today. We veteran Rotarians must find creative ways of evolving Rotary to be most effective today, while maintaining our traditional values.
However, as much as I enjoyed the program, the most enjoyable part of visiting was the "Stand By Me" video. I'm going back to watch and listen for the third time!
Charlie Berry, Paradise Valley, Arizona
Quite an interesting program - very thought provoking.
Great information and a great meeting. I printed a copy of the information that addressed What is Roatary?; Who are Rotarians?; What does Rotary do? I am placing it on 3X5 card so I can carry it with me. That way I can be prepared when I am asked about Rotary.
great program
An expert is defined as a person with a briefcase form out of town.
Excellent program. I know the text messaging portion is only one example, but I've worried about what my kids are going to be like as far as writing and more generally being able to express ideas. For that reason I intend to delay that form of technology in their lives as long as possible.
What a great program. Words to live by. PS I always hold my breath when I close out the program for fear I'm exiting the site and will lose the credit.. Could you put something at the end of a program to instruct visitors to click on the red X allowing us to feel comfortable to do so...
Part of the work I'm doing in our district this year is training district leaders in thinking globally/locally. Being creative. The "wall" I continually run into is "that's how we do it."
What shakes people up is when they find out that they have district Rotarains in Inda, and South Africa and Nigeria and Kenya. When our district leader truly embrace this thought, they begin to think differently, more creatively.
Ah yes. . . the joy of being an eClub and constantly pushing the envelope! :)
Very Interesting Meeting on Creativity. thank you
Thankyou for the opportunity to be part of your club this week. As a traveller for many months of a a year, you are always looking for a club to do a makeup, unfortunately the meeting days do not always co-incide with your date in that town so the Eclub is a great opportunity to keep in touch. Interesting topics were covered.
The Rotary Minute was powerul in reminding us why we are Rotarians and what our mission is.
Interesting program on creativity which asserts that, in the aggregate, it is diminishing in our culture. Uniquely, development of creativity among the young is diminishing due to widespread use of abbreviated language in communication. More conventionally, creativity declines naturally as we age (with our surprisingly highest level occurring during the pre-school years). In addition, the cooperative nature of our species apparently spawns a conformity which constrains creativity too. Similarly, habits (presumably bad habits) and large amounts of specialized knowledge also retard the creative impulse. The good news, we're told, is "Rotary has, from its beginning in 1905, been an organization of creative, imaginative workers". What came first: Rotary or Rotarians? Good program
Thaks for a very informative emeeting. Ilearned a few things on texting and creativity to share with my table at Rotary.
It has been some time since I had done a make-up meeting on this site. Some wonderful articles. Thank you very much. I'll try to be 'More Creative'!
Ken Dunn - Orange, CA Rotary Red Badge
Interesting program - creativity always has a place.
This was a wonderful and fascinating study on creativity. I especially enjoyed the pronouncements of "experts" and their incorrect predictions. (Also loved the "sister" joke!) Once we realize that every single invention/project/improvement/painting/novel/building, article of clothing -- on and on -- began with one person having an idea, perhaps it is less anxiety-producing to continue with one's own ideas and carry them out.
8-30-2010Teaching creativity is a daunting task. Perhaps the best way to promote it is to be like the 5-year olds cited in this presentation and to go back to the sand box or the playground to invent, to fantasize, to make up, and to just pretend without limitation and self-censorship. Out of that free-flow of ideas and images and dreams we might very well come across a new perspective that might offer a smart and more beneficial solution to a problem that seemed to our less-imaginative selves unsolvable.Thank you!
Loved the program...so simple - why do those with the ability/"power" not get it?!!
Thank you for the fresh reminder.
Thank you!
This might just be the most important program we've had in our club this year. My comments on this program would fill several pages of commentary...an unfair ursurping of space. I'm thinking of starting a thread on our Club Forum. If I do, I invite all creative comments.
I take it the author of the program chooses to remain anonymous.
As always, great program
We are moving at a much fast pace. Just like when the telegraph line was installed under the Atlantic Ocean 144 years ago, two years before Paul Harris was born. We will adapt and creatively use the new tools. "This is a changing world," wrote Harris in 1935.
Creativity can be fun. When we are having fun, we relax our minds to be creative. Which comes first: creativity or fun? The answer in the 21st century may be "Yes!" And each of us know that service without fun does not get done tomorrow.
