How creativity is understood, regarded and perceived in my cultural/educational tradition

Creativity, in all it's definitions, can be viewed in several different ways. While I believe it is the life blood of any progressive organization, it can, at times, be met with resistance. While we all like to feel we are open and ready for change, the fact of matter is that change, which goes hand in hand with creativity, can often produce fear and apprehension.

If creativity is limited to how a particular teacher does their own job, then it can be invigorating to the teacher and the student. Once it involves others, the issues above come into play and often will leave the creative teacher frustrated and defeated, stifling any future attempt to bring fresh ideas to the classroom. I have seen this happen repeatedly in both the business and educational sectors.

I know that in my situation, creativity is encouraged and supported. Since we are not governed by state regulations, we have more flexibility in how the material is taught in each classroom. But we still fight some of the issue mentioned above. So how do we incorporate change and creativity in our classrooms effectively? Here are some suggestions I have learned over my career in business and education.

1. Involve your administrator very early in the process. If you have his/her support, it can greatly facilitate the idea you have for your classroom. If you can not get their support, try and convince them of the benefit to the educational experience, which will only make their job easier and is a positive reflection on them as well.

2. Implement your changes in phases. If the idea you have is too large to implement in one step, break it down and implement smaller phases. This also gives those involved an opportunity to observe how effective the initial phases are and, if successful, will allow any subsequent phases to be implemented quickly.

3. Be sincere and humble when discussing your ideas. Don't try and be the one that is always blazing trails. Encourage and help other teachers implement some of their idea's as well. Fostering a team environment will only help in any future idea's you may have.

4. Be patient and diligent. If your initial idea's are not approved or don't work, learn from them and keep trying. Not every idea is good one, but it may be one that can be tweeked, by you or a coworker.

Implications of the Web on Cultural Differences

We live on an increasingly more connected planet. In a world as diverse as the one in which we live, I believe we need to aware of the content on our websites. While I believe it is impossible to know with any certainty how our site's content will be received by every culture, I think we have a responsibility to be sensitive to potential differences. If the site is culturally significant, if it's purpose is to provide an opinion or a different perspective on topics that could be interpreted differently by different cultures, than I believe we have a responsibility to be careful in how those views are presented. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Be honest about the bias of the site. Letting people know where you are coming from can help in the acceptance of the material presented.

2. Be clear as to any sources you use. Be specific on where you got the information. If it is from printed material, give enough information so the reader can verify the source. If you are quoting someone, try and find a reference that cab be verified, ie another website.

3. Be sensitive to how the information is presented. When you are giving an opinion, state that it is your opinion. Don't make it sound like everyone agrees with you just because you believe a certain way on a particular topic.

Unfortunately, we live in an increasingly radical world where people will present ideas as absolute truth without supporting documentation. People believe very strongly about issues that affect them, and as much as we would like to think that some of these issues can be resolved with calm dialogue, it is not reasonable, in my opinion, to expect that to change in the near future.

I will post some websites that I believe are contrary to responsible content in the near future.