Three Books That Taught Me How to Be Creative
Photo by Nathana Rebouças on Unsplash
A few years ago, my family insisted that we buy a bean bag chair. The one they wanted was light brown and humongous. It was three against one. I never had a chance.
At first, I didn’t want this bean bag chair. I worried my family’s excitement about it would eventually evaporate, replaced by the dreadful avoidance of getting rid of it. But after having it around the house for a few weeks, I learned to love it.
It’s perfectly sized so I have to curl up to fit my body on it. The only way to actually use it is to get cuddly.
On many days when I get home from work, I plop myself down on the chair. And there, comfortable in its embrace, I scroll through Instagram.
In my feed are photos of sneakers, fountain pens, and inspirational quotes. Sprinkled throughout these are posts from the #TeachersOfInstagram hashtag.
The posts are interesting. There are photos of color coded lesson plans, complete with tables and flowchart arrows. There are laminated writing prompts that, unlike the ones I got when I was in school, look like they’re made by somebody who actually likes writing. There are photos of interactive writing walls, where students move little vowel sound tokens around to label words.
And there, curled up in the humongous light brown bean bag chair, I see that educators aren’t just teaching students as a condition of their employment. They’re teaching students as an expression of their creativity.
“And there, curled up in the humongous light brown bean bag chair, I see that educators aren’t just teaching students as a condition of their employment. They’re teaching students as an expression of their creativity.”
Three Books That Inspire Creativity
Our education careers are as much a creative endeavor as are careers in art, architecture, or entrepreneurship. But for whatever reason, we don’t always talk about them like that. I wish we did.
To talk about how and why education is a creative field, we need language. And for language, we go to books.
Here are three of my favorite books about creativity. Each of them masterfully addresses the challenges of creative work. So much so, that I find myself applying their perspectives to my work as an educator.
#1: Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott
This book was one of the first I picked up to learn how to write like the professionals do. Then I read it and discovered its broader lessons about creativity and life. Two of these lessons in particular come to mind.
First, accept that your first attempt at anything will be bad. It’s not only ok, it’s necessary. Next, if getting started feels overwhelming, start smaller. For writing, it means knocking out a few sentences about the smallest possible topic.
To me, Anne Lamott’s voice is tough and gentle at the same time. Tough, because she lays out an inconvenient truth about creativity: the only way to do the work is to get over our fears and just get started. But gentle, because she teaches us that kindness and baby steps are the way forward:
“Say to yourself in the kindest possible way, Look, honey, all we’re going to do for now is to write a description of the river at sunrise, or the young child swimming in the pool at the club, or the first time the man sees the woman he will marry. That is all we are going to do for now.”
#2: Creative Calling by Chase Jarvis
Here’s one practical idea I picked up from Creative Calling that has become a habit seared into my brain: create before you consume. Chase Jarvis reminds us to commit to creating something small at the start of every day before consuming content that sucks up our time and creative energy. Email and social media, I’m looking at you. As Chase Jarvis puts it:
“If the first thing you do each day is pick up your phone and cruise all your favorite creators and entrepreneurs for inspiration, you probably end up feeling anxious or depressed that you're not far enough along. The simple act of creating something with intention first, before consuming the work of others, alters the dynamic.”
Documentary footage of me not bringing my authentic self to my education job.
#3: The Practice by Seth Godin
There’s a tension between making something that’s true to who you are and making something that serves your audience. In the Practice, Seth Godin points out that we can’t just make something for ourselves:
“For art to be generous it must change the recipient. If it doesn’t, it’s not working (yet). But realizing it’s not working is an opportunity to make it better.”
This feels true in education. If we only created what’s interesting to us, we wouldn’t be giving students what they need (“Kids, today we’ll be learning basket weaving, because that’s what I’m interested in.”). On the other hand, if we only created cookie cutter lessons, we would deprive students of our authentic selves (“Kids, today we’ll be learning about fractions. In the exact same way you learned math last year and the year before that.”)
Conclusion
In your education job, who’s your audience? Maybe it’s students, maybe it’s teachers, or maybe it’s administrators. And what do you create for them? Maybe it’s lessons, maybe it’s professional development, or maybe it’s an inspiring setting for collaboration.
You can use your gifts to create something in service to others. And in that way, you’re just like any other creator. I hope these books give you the inspiration and language to think of yourself that way, just like they did for me.
Notes
The posts are interesting: Rozen, Courtney. “Teachers Turn Lessons Into Instagram-Worthy Photos.” NPR, 4 December 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/12/04/670829785/teachers-turn-lessons-into-instagram-worthy-photos. Accessed 20 December 2021.
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Books, 2008.
Jarvis, Chase. Creative Calling: Establish a Daily Practice, Infuse Your World with Meaning, and Find Success in Work, Hobby, and Life. HarperCollins, 2019.
Godin, Seth. The Practice: Shipping Creative Work. Penguin Books, Limited, 2020.
