ALLOW, For Creativity
Creativity needs to be,
The most important part of your education
Did you ever want to do something when you were young, only to be told that,
“This is a bad idea”
or
“You’ll never get a job doing that”
You ideas and dreams, killed before they ever had a chance to grow, this is what (for many of us anyway) our parents did to us, or possibly your friends and most certainly your schools education board will have done.
I have three children and I home school them, a decision I made years ago for several reasons, reason such as the regimented, almost prison like way in which they are marched from one room to the next, told what to wear, what to do and when to do it, being given piles of homework, all while being forced into learning something they have no interest in to start with.
“Stop playing with dinosaurs, you’ll never get a good job doing that!”
Erm… I’m sure palaeontologists do
When I was at school we were taught about the industrial revolution, whereas when my wife was at school, she was taught about the ancient Egyptians, all interesting stuff I guess, but at no point was this what we asked for.
The idea behind homeschooling is to discover through play, what the children are really into and then pursue that idea further, whether this is an interest in wildlife, astronomy, dinosaurs or music, and this is the same way I try to approach my teaching of Wing Chun.
I will not try to force the style of Wing Chun on to you (like the school system does), but if you have made the effort to walk through the door of my school, or joined us at wingchun.online then you have shown the initial interest I refer to, it is then my job to try to show you more of Wing Chun in a way which keeps your interest AND, is catered to you in a way that YOU can use it.
A good example of this is the debate over turning stance…
“Do we sit back 70/30 or do we stay 50/50?”
The answer to this should not be carved in stone, it must be open to discussion and not taught like a text book from the national curriculum.
Of course, if sitting back is not so easy for you, if you are heavy set for example, you can choose to stay 50/50, which WILL require more power in your defence, Bong/Kwun etc. But if you are small and slight, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!
I don’t think I have never heard a skinny Instructor telling people to stay 50/50 when turning?
Just because you as a teacher, can do something, you should not expect everyone else to be able to do the same thing, such as when I hear teachers ‘accepting’ to be hit by one strike over another, this is fine should you wish to be a cage fighter, but what of the elderly man or the young girl who wish to join your school for self defence or confidence building reasons?
Do not let your education of your Wing Chun stop you from exploring other ideas and approaches, it is this creativity which will see you grow, gain more experiences within the art and become a better teacher too.
I heard this point perfectly phrased recently by Sir Ken Robinson, who said:
“Education stifles creativity”
He has some wonderful TED talks (should you wish to look further into his view).
In one of his talks he says that the reason why kids are so creative is because they are not afraid to make a mistake, to get things wrong but still give it a go.
As we go through our schooling we are punished for getting things wrong, therefore we stop taking these risks and subsequently stop trying to be creative.
To quote Sir Ken:
“Picasso once said this, he said that all children are born artists.
The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up”
“I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it.
Or rather, we get educated out of it.”
I am not suggesting that the next time you go out to a fancy restaurant, that you run around the place and then hide under someone else’s table, but simply that you do not remain blinkered, allow yourself to be open to other ideas and see things from a different perspective.
Happy exploring everyone!