TED Talks and Creativity Mythology

With almost 8.5 million views, Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius) is among the most popular TED talks of all time.  Gilbert is a best-selling author whose works include Eat, Pray, Love.

Gilbert returns to the ancient Greek idea of The Muses as the source of creativity.  In this model, creativity is divinely inspired by The Muses, and our human form serves as a vessel for this creativity.  If you're not feeling particularly creative today, it simply means that your muse isn't inspiring you.  The rough etymology of "inspire" can be construed as "to breathe into," and that's what the Greeks thought The Muses did - they breathed creativity into our mortal flesh.

This makes for great storytelling, but terrible arts education.

A close listening to Gilbert's talk makes it clear that she is using the concept of The Muses as a psychological shield against writer's block and fear of failure.  It's comforting that you may not be personally responsible for any lack of creative success you are experiencing.  But if this concept is taken to its logical extreme, the human element of creativity diminishes to the point where one wonders if the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions matters at all.  Gilbert's talk may be useful therapy, but it leads to pedagogical bankruptcy.

I think David Burkus would profoundly disagree with Gilbert.  In his book The Myths of Creativity, he describes creativity concepts such as eureka moments, expert knowledge, incentives, brainstorming, and exposes the myths behind popular perceptions of the creative power of these concepts.

Rather than relying on mythology, Burkus relies on creativity research. According to Teresa Amabile, creativity is influenced by four elements:

1. domain-relevant skills,
2. creativity-relevant processes,
3. task motivation, and
4. the surrounding social environment.

We can influence these factors through education.  Domain skills can be taught and learned  Creativity processes can be taught and learned.  We can develop the dispositions needed to help motivate students to complete tasks.  We can influence our educational environment to promote creativity rather than stifle it.

We know that our society is crying out for enhanced creativity.  We must work hard to advocate for the unique power of fine arts education to fill this need, even if it means questioning one of our favorite authors.

References

Amabile, T. (1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Burkus, D. (2014). The myths of creativity: The truth about how innovative companies and people generate great ideas. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.