Creating a Culture of Creators
创造力文化的创建
In a recent blog, Jonathan Ely discussed the evolution of our definitions of and approaches to creativity in an age dominated by technology and the rise of artificial intelligence. Certainly, we now have computers that can create works of art, pieces of music, and new designs—all using processes that mimic the learning and creative processes in humans; there are even empathetic robots. I have wondered for a while about what is essentially human about art if machines can create it, and so I was interested in Ely’s question: “Is Creativity Finally Dead?”
在最近的一篇博客中，Jonathan Ely讨论了在科技和人工智能崛起的时代，我们对创造力的定义和方法的演变。毋庸置疑，我们现在拥有计算机，它可以制作出艺术品、音乐作品以及所有模仿人类学习和创作过程的新型设计，甚至还创造出了善解人意的机器人。我曾经想过，如果机器能够创造艺术，那么人类对于艺术的本质是什么呢？所以我对Ely的问题很感兴趣：“创造力最终会消亡吗？”
Ely discussed the evolution of the role of creativity from a means of survival to the realm of eccentric outliers to its emerging role as a “core competency” for our age. In discussing the importance of creativity in the lives of common people, he distinguished between creating and other pseudo-creative acts like making and revising. Creating results in something totally new, sometimes revolutionary, and it can be risky and nerve-wracking.
Ely从生存手段到作为我们这个时代“核心竞争力”的新兴角色方面讨论了创造力的作用。在讨论创造力对普通人生活产生的影响时，他区分了创造和伪创造行为，如制作和修改。创造带来的是全新的事物，它或许会产生革命性意义，也可能会产生一定的风险。
This risky part of creativity often causes the average person to set up barriers that stunt their creative growth. These barriers include the mindset that creativity can only be a powerful force through the few innately talented individuals who are uniquely gifted to be channels of some creative muse. The fact is that creative thinking and creative skills can be taught; all of us have the potential to be creative. The second barrier is the relegation of creativity to only the artistic realm. While art offers well-established opportunities for creative work, so does every other field of human endeavor. In fact, creativity often involves crossing through, over, and around the artificial boundaries that separate those various fields.
创造力带来的的风险主要是它会影响普通人创造性的发挥，只能通过少数天赋异禀的人才能发挥出强大的力量。事实上，创造性思维和创造能力是可以传授的；我们所有人都具有创造力的潜能。第二个风险是人们只在艺术领域发挥创造力。虽然艺术为创造性的发挥提供了良好的机会，但人类其他领域也是需要创造力的。创造力通常需要跨越不同的制作领域。
Finally, Ely mentioned one barrier that I see as the largest obstacle to creativity in teens: fear and self-doubt. Researcher Patrick Carroll, an assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State, has studied this trait that has become increasingly common among teens—particularly in overachievers. According to researcher Linda Flanagan, there are a handful of remedies offered by Carroll and other psychologists:
最后，Ely还提到了一个风险，我认为这是影响青少年创造力的最大障碍：恐惧和自我怀疑。俄亥俄州立大学心理学助教Patrick Carroll对这种在青少年群体中越来越普遍的特点进行了研究，尤其是对有非凡成就的人。据研究人员Linda Flanagan称，Carroll和其他心理学家为人们提供了一些补救措施:
1. Recognize that fear and self-doubt are normal responses to challenges, and the larger the challenge, the more self-doubt will be present. Doubt about your creative ability is simply a sign that creating things is often hard work.
告诉自己，恐惧和自我怀疑是对挑战的正常反应，挑战越大，自我怀疑就越多。对你的创造力的怀疑只是一个信号，它表明创造事物往往是一件困难的事情。
2. Practice positive self-talk. When negative self-talk generated by fear and doubt arises, question that voice, and replace its emotional noise with more productive and rational thoughts.
练习积极的自我对话。当恐惧和怀疑让自己产生消极的自我对话时，用更有成效和理性的想法来替代消极情绪。
3. Remember your past successes and how they made you feel. Whether they were creative acts or not, they show that you are capable of success and provide a sense of confidence.
记住你过去获得的成就以及它们带给你的感觉。无论它们是否具有创造性，都表明你有成功的潜力，可以帮助你建立自信。
4. Focus on the process rather than results. This advice has been echoed on campus lately by individuals ranging from football coach Rich Alercio to art teacher Kim Darling. All of these experts can attest to the fact that if you tend to the process, the results take care of themselves. More than any other tip, I find this one most helpful in my moments of self-doubt as it reinforces my belief in the power of hard work and learning rather than some magical power or talent. Find a medium that appeals to you and start to work with it.
关注过程而不是结果。这条建议最近从学院足球教练Rich Alercio和美术老师Kim Darling那里得到了积极的反馈。所有这些专家都可以证明，如果你注重于过程，最后的结果通常不会太差。在我经历自我怀疑的时候，我发现这确实是最有益的，因为它强化了我对努力工作和学习的力量的信念，而不是一些神奇的力量或天赋。大家要发掘自己的兴趣并努力做到最好。
5. Visualize your future self and success. Cultivate what Carroll calls the “vivid desired self” to supplant the fear of failure. Focus on your strengths and competencies, and build upon those as you create. Find what motivates you to create and focus on that.
设想未来成功的自己。学会用求知欲来取代对失败的恐惧。在创作时专注于你的强项和能力，找到让你想要专注于创作的动力。
I was reminded of how members of our faculty have fostered creativity as I listened to published author Frances Cannon, Class of ’09, who returned to campus to speak in Chapel. Having become an accomplished visual artist in several media and a talented creative writer while she was a student here, she has gone on to be a model of creativity as a food writer, poet, and story-teller, often intertwining her visual art with her written work. As she told of her journey from the Academy to UVM to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop (which has resulted in several publications and three books, including her new one, The Highs and Lows of Shapeshift Ma and Big-Little Frank), I thought how wonderful it is that, while still in high school, she was able develop into a self-proclaimed “artist of hybrid mediums”. Her mentors—artists and creators in their own rights—knew how to foster her latent creativity and the confidence to use it.
当我在礼堂内听作家Frances Cannon的演讲时，我想到了我们的教职工是如何培养学生的创造力的。她是圣约翰学院09届毕业生，当她还在学院上学的时候，她已经成为几家媒体眼中颇有成就的视觉艺术家和才华横溢的创意作家，后来她成为了一个有创造力的美食作家、诗人和说书人，她经常把视觉艺术和书面作品交织在一起。当她讲述她从圣约翰学院到UVM再到爱荷华作家工作室（在这里她已经发表了好几个作品并出版了三本书，包括她的新作The Highs and Lows of Shapeshift Ma and Big-Little Frank）的经历时，我真的觉得非常棒，因为她还在读高中时就成为了一名“混合媒介艺术家”，她的导师清楚地知道如何培养她潜在的创造力和信心。
As was the case with Frances, our students are fortunate to learn in a school where creativity flourishes under mentors across various disciplines; from fine and performing arts, the sciences, and mathematics, to creative writing, culinary arts, and fine woodworking, our students create incredible things. Whether they are computer coders or environmental scientists or fashion designers, they are surrounded by creators and creative thinkers, and they learn from each other and their teachers every day. So in response to Ely’s question , creativity and all the ways in which it benefits humanity—our spirits, minds, and hearts—are alive and well at St. Johnsbury Academy.
和Frances一样，我们学院的学生很幸运，因为他们可以在不同学科导师的指导下发挥创造力。从美术、艺术、科学、数学、创意写作、烹饪艺术到优秀的木工学科，我们的学生创造出了各种不可思议的作品。无论是计算机程序员还是环境科学家抑或时装设计师，他们周围都是创造者和有创新想法的人，每天都会互相学习。因此，创造力以及它对我们的精神、思想和心灵所产生的影响，在圣约翰学院都是根深蒂固且活跃生动的。
