TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

There are three dominant aspects that are crucial to any education of a creative practice: Expression, Methodology, and Problem Solving. In order to properly provide a creative education, all three of these must be carefully considered and nurtured.

Expression can be understood as the conceptual/theoretical thinking that goes into any given piece. While this is often saved for higher-level students, it should not be. Every student of every skill-level has equal access to their own expressive and conceptual thinking. An effective program places a focus on cultivating a passion for pursuing these concepts and theories, so that when the time comes to practice a methodology, each student has a reason to want to practice. In reality, this may result in early-level student work that might not look as polished on the surface, but would have a deep conceptual base that can only develop further with practice and iterations.

Methodology can be understood as the practical, physical, hands-on processes that create a piece of work (be it performative, visual, digital, or otherwise). This is often the first thing to make its way into creative curriculums, but it is often not the most important for beginner-level students. Learning and honing practical skills is often a monotonous and grueling task that requires a level of dedication and patience that is difficult to cultivate in students who may not have discovered their passion for expression yet. Most creative education programs/departments put a strong focus on practical fundamentals for beginner-level students, but this is alienating for students that are still discovering their expressive interests. A more effective program places a focus on Expression before deeper Methodology so that students that realize they have a passion for expression can dedicate their time to practicing the methodology.

Problem Solving is the thread that ties these two together. As an educator it is important to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard I try, I will never be able to give every student every tool that they will ever need to complete every project they will ever do. Thinking otherwise is naïve and often results in fractured curriculums that fail to leave a lasting impact on any student. However, while I cannot ensure that a single curriculum provides every necessary tool until the end of time, I can ensure that any given curriculum provides the tools necessary to access the tools that I cannot cover. This way, regardless of a student’s desire to create work outside of the scope of any given curriculum, they are properly equipped to gather their own knowledge to solve the creative problems that they have set out for themselves. Problem Solving, in my opinion, is where the true heart of creative education lies. While a creative education may not cover the exact processes to solve every problem, it does cultivate the skill of learning how to solve every problem. In a practical sense, this might look like a lesson covering error messages in a given program, or a research based project that requires students to complete a task that has not been explicitly taught and requires students to find the tools via either outside resources or in-program experimentation.

Through the careful implementation of lessons that cover all three of the above concepts, a curriculum can be designed that cultivates the most important aspects of student creativity and paves the way for each student to pursue a creative practice with a foundation that will carry them through the rest of their lives. At the end of the day, is that not what creative education is about?