Creativity Rules

First posted April 14th, now typo free, and with some changes: i've sung in schools a lot and sometimes given workshops
to students. In a work shop encouraging creativity, there was a slot alloted, for sharing poems, or anything else that was created. I noticed how when a participant was brave enough to get up and share a creation, how some others would start heckling that person. This was not the climate of encouragement I had hoped to create among the children present. It didn't
take me long to find a response to this behaviour. When a heckler was identified, I would tell that person: "O.K....You're up
next to share something you've created!". This worked like a charm snuffing out the carping in these sessions. I guess what happened was that when a student knew that he or she would be up next, it forced that person to face the fear of making a fool of him or herself, and to realize that it was wise not to put down anyone who was brave enough to do it. That
experience underlined for me something that I already knew. It was that whatever place criticism may have in our lives, I
will always put creativity ahead of it...knowing that criticism is always reactive, needing to ride on the back of those who
generate something new into this world, rather than stand on its own two feet...and that I would always feel empathy for, and
want to encourage, those who are brave enough to create something, imperfect as it may be, in a world dominated by
consumerism and criticism. Quester.