Among all of the serious and demanding aspects of our lives, do we ever stop and really remember the powerful relationship between creative play and thinking?
Thinking and problem solving come from creative exploration. Play-full-ness. Often the silly ideas of the 'impossible' are the very ones that result in new ideas, disruptive innovations. This ability to play and build neurological patterns of thinking begins when we are very young. When freedom to explore and play is granted, synaptic connections flourish. We become energized and continue the eagerness to learn. When early notions are overlooked, passed off as silly, or closed down by parents or teachers, we learn to stop thinking creatively. We learn that it is too risky. We become embarrassed by our failures. But in reality, failure is how we learn.
Thomas Edison failed many, many, many times before developing a successful light bulb. But each time he failed, he embraced it as an opportunity to learn again… only, the next time, with more knowledge. He did not hide behind his embarrassment, or shy away or quit. He persevered. He did what we all should strive to do. He did what we should all strive to teach our children to do.
I wonder what would have happened if Mr. Edison had been graded by an instructor over that period of time of 'epic failure'. I mean... it was a silly idea to explore an artificial source of light. What if he had received a failing grade for each failed attempt, would he have passed his ‘light bulb development’ class? Would the final result of the actual light bulb make up for all of the failed attempts? Or since he already had 52 failing grades, would he have just quit since it was obvious he would never pass the class? The successful attempt and resulting 'aha!' would only count for one grade and definitely would not be enough to raise his grade to a passing one. What if the course was over before he had the en'light'ened epiphany? Would he have continued his explorations - putting aside the grade or what others thought about his failures - for the sheer love and passion of solving the challenge? This is the deeper meaning behind exploratory learning (and failing). Desire to delve deep, keep persevering, and be resilient when met with failure.
Failure is an opportunity to begin again… and learn again... only this time... more intelligently.
Learning is a mystery. One day, knowledge of a certain topic is unknown and does not exist… and then on the next... it appears. The brain is a malleable organ. It is capable of growing and stretching as far as we challenge it to do so. So how do we keep it open? Keep it playing. Keep it thinking. If we ask the right questions… the results are wonderful... and full of wonder.
~Carol