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IT BOTHERS MATTHEW LAHUE and it surely bothers you: enter a public restroom and the stall lock is broken. Fortunately, Mr. Lahue has a solution. It’s called the Bathroom Bodyguard. Standing before his Buffalo State College classmates and professor, Cyndi Burnett, Mr. Lahue displayed a device he concocted from a large washer, metal ring, wall hook, rubber bands and Lincoln Log. Slide the ring in the crack and twist. The door stays shut. Plus, the device fits in a jacket pocket.
创造力——察觉问题并找到巧妙解决方案的能力——曾被认为是天才或神灵启示的产物，而今则作为一项珍贵且可培育的技能得以重塑。它与标准化考试和标准化思考相背离，与这个日新月异的时代所需要的创造性契合。 “The reality is that to survive in a fast-changing world you need to be creative,” says Gerard J. Puccio, chairman of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College, which has the nation’s oldest creative studies program, having offered courses in it since 1967. “现实是，要在这个快速变化的世界里生存，你需要有创造性，”布法罗州立学院创造性研究国际中心(International Center for Studies in Creativity)主席杰勒德·普奇奥(Gerard J. Puccio)说。该学院有全美历史最悠久的创造性研究项目，最早的相关课程开设于1967年。 “That is why you are seeing more attention to creativity at universities,” he says. “The marketplace is demanding it.” “这就是为什么大学越来越重视创造，”他说。“因为市场需要创造力。” Critical thinking has long been regarded as the essential skill for success, but it’s not enough, says Dr. Puccio. Creativity moves beyond mere synthesis and evaluation and is, he says, “the higher order skill.” This has not been a sudden development. Nearly 20 years ago “creating” replaced “evaluation” at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning objectives. In 2010 “creativity” was the factor most crucial for success found in an I.B.M. survey of 1,500 chief executives in 33 industries. These days “creative” is the most used buzzword in LinkedIn profiles two years running. 普奇奥博士说，长期以来，批判性思维一直被视为通往成功的关键本领，但这还不够。他说，创造力超越了纯粹的综合与评估，而是“更高阶的能力”。这样的发展并不突然。近20年前，“创造”就替代了“评估”，位列学习目标布鲁姆分类(Bloom’s Taxonomy)的首位。在2010年，I.B.M.针对33个行业中1500名首席执行官的一项调查发现，成功至关重要的因素是“创造力”。目前，在职业社交网站LinkedIn的用户档案中，“创造力”是连续两年来使用最多的时髦词。 Traditional academic disciplines still matter, but as content knowledge evolves at lightning speed, educators are talking more and more about “process skills,” strategies to reframe challenges and extrapolate and transform information, and to accept and deal with ambiguity. 传统的学术科目仍然重要，但随着学科知识风驰电掣地演变，教育者们越来越多地谈论起“过程技能”——挑战的再框定策略，信息推断和转变策略，以及接受和处理不确定性的能力。 Creative studies is popping up on course lists and as a credential. Buffalo State, part of the State University of New York, plans a Ph.D. and already offers a master’s degree and undergraduate minor. Saybrook University in San Francisco has a master’s and certificate, and added a specialization to its psychology Ph.D. in 2011. Drexel University in Philadelphia has a three-year-old online master’s. St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, N.C., has added a minor. And creative studies offerings, sometimes with a transdisciplinary bent, are new options in business, education, digital media, humanities, arts, science and engineering programs across the country. 学校课程表中涌现了许多创造力研究课，并成了一项能力证明。作为纽约州立大学(State University of New York)的分校，布法罗州立学院计划设置了创造力博士学位，并且已经开设了硕士学位和本科辅修项目。旧金山的赛布鲁克大学(Saybrook University)也开设了相关硕士学位和文凭项目，并于2011年在其心理学博士学位项目中增设了一门相关专业。费城的德雷塞尔大学(Drexel University)开设了一个三年期的在线创造力硕士学位课程。北卡罗来纳州劳林堡的圣安德鲁斯大学(St. Andrews University)已经增设了一门创造力辅修课。而且，创造力研究有时往往是跨学科的，是全美商业、教育、数字媒体、人文、艺术、科学与工程专业的新选择。 Suddenly, says Russell G. Carpenter, program coordinator for a new minor in applied creative thinking at Eastern Kentucky University, “there is a larger conversation happening on campus: ‘Where does creativity fit into the E.K.U. student experience?’ ” Dr. Carpenter says 40 students from a broad array of fields, including nursing and justice and safety, have enrolled in the minor — a number he expects to double as more sections are added to introductory classes. Justice and safety? Students want tools to help them solve public safety problems and deal with community issues, Dr. Carpenter explains, and a credential to take to market. 东肯塔基大学（Eastern Kentucky University，简称E.K.U.）应用型创造性思维新辅修课程协调员罗素·卡彭特(Russell G. Carpenter)说，突然间，“校园里出现了一个更大的话题：‘鉴于E.K.U.学生的具体情况，创造力适用于哪些专业？’”卡彭特博士说，来自于护理、司法与安全等一系列专业的40名学生报名参加了这一辅修课程。他预计，随着内容的不断丰富，这一辅修课程的报名人数将翻一番。司法与安全专业的学生也参加该课程？卡彭特博士解释说，因为学生们希望拥有帮助他们解决公共安全问题并处理社区问题的工具，而且能够将这一能力证书带到就业市场上去。 The credential’s worth is apparent to Mr. Lahue, a communication major who believes that a minor in the field carries a message. “It says: ‘This person is not a drone. They can use this skill set and apply themselves in other parts of the job.’ ” 对主修传播学的拉休先生来说，该证书的价值是显而易见的，他相信辅修这一课程是有意义的。“它意味着：‘这个人不是一个碌碌无为的学生。他们能够用到这一技能并在工作的其它方面发挥主观能动性。’” On-demand inventiveness is not as outrageous as it sounds. Sure, some people are naturally more imaginative than others. What’s igniting campuses, though, is the conviction that everyone is creative, and can learn to be more so. 基于需求的创造力并不像它听上去那么不得了。当然，有些人天生就比其他人更有想像力。但点燃校园创造激情的是一种信念：相信每个人都有创造力，而且人们可以通过学习变得更加富有创造力。 Just about every pedagogical toolbox taps similar strategies, employing divergent thinking (generating multiple ideas) and convergent thinking (finding what works).The real genius, of course, is in the how. 几乎每个教育学的工具箱都应用类似策略：利用发散思维（产生多样的见解）和聚合思维（找出有效的方案）。当然，真正的天赋在于怎样发散和聚合。 Dr. Puccio developed an approach that he and partners market as FourSight and sell to schools, businesses and individuals. The method, which is used in Buffalo State classrooms, has four steps: clarifying, ideating, developing and implementing. People tend to gravitate to particular steps, suggesting their primary thinking style. Clarifying — asking the right question — is critical because people often misstate or misperceive a problem. “If you don’t have the right frame for the situation, it’s difficult to come up with a breakthrough,” Dr. Puccio says. Ideating is brainstorming and calls for getting rid of your inner naysayer to let your imagination fly. Developing is building out a solution, and maybe finding that it doesn’t work and having to start over. Implementing calls for convincing others that your idea has value. 普奇奥博士和搭档开发了一个方法，称为四面法(FourSight)，并向学校、企业和个人推广。在布法罗州立学院课堂中使用的该方法包含四个步骤：明确问题、形成概念、发展与执行。人们趋向于使用某些特别步骤，这体现了他们的基本思维方式。明确问题——问对问题——是关键，因为人们经常错误地描述或理解一个问题。“如果你的问题框定有误，就很难取得突破，”普奇奥博士说。形成概念是头脑风暴，需要摆脱建立解决方案的习惯，并且可能发现方案不起作用，必须重新开始。执行需要说服他人，让人相信你的点子是有价值的。 Jack V. Matson, an environmental engineer and a lead instructor of “Creativity, Innovation and Change,” a MOOC that drew 120,000 in September, teaches a freshman seminar course at Penn State that he calls “Failure 101.” That’s because, he says, “the frequency and intensity of failures is an implicit principle of the course. Getting into a creative mind-set involves a lot of trial and error.” 环境工程师兼大型开放式网络课程(MOOC)“创造、创新与变革”的首席教官杰克·美森(Jack V. Matson)在宾夕法尼亚州立大学(Penn State)教一门大一研讨班课程，他称其为“失败101”。他说，那是因为“失败的频率和强度是课程的隐性原则，练就富有创造力的心智需要大量试错。”他的网络课程在9月份吸引了12万人。 His favorite assignments? Construct a résumé based on things that didn’t work out and find the meaning and influence these have had on your choices. Or build the tallest structure you can with 20 Popsicle sticks. The secret to the assignment is to destroy the sticks and reimagine their use. “As soon as someone in the class starts breaking the sticks,” he says, “it changes everything.” 他最喜欢布置哪些任务？根据失败的经历构思出一份简历，并从中找到这些事件对你做选择时的意义与影响。或是用20根冰棍棒搭出一个最高的结构。这个任务的奥秘在于折断棍子并重新考虑它们的用途。“一旦有人在课堂上开始折断棍子，”他说，“一切将变得不一样了。” Dr. Matson also asks students to “find some cultural norms to break,” like doing cartwheels while entering the library. The point: “Examine what in the culture is preventing you from creating something new or different. And what is it like to look like a fool because a lot of things won’t work out and you will look foolish? So how do you handle that?” 美森博士也要求学生“打破一些文化规范，”例如翻个筋斗进图书馆。关键是：“去调查文化中的哪些内容阻止你创造出一些新的或不一样的东西。由于许多事没有效果，你将看上去很蠢，那么看上去像个傻瓜会是什么样的？对此你该怎样处理？” It’s a lesson that has been basic to the ventures of Brad Keywell, a Groupon founder and a student of Dr. Matson’s at the University of Michigan. “I am an absolute evangelist about the value of failure as part of creativity,” says Mr. Keywell, noting that Groupon took off after the failure of ThePoint.com, where people were to organize for collective action but instead organized discount group purchases. Dr. Matson taught him not just to be willing to fail but that failure is a critical avenue to a successful end. Because academics run from failure, Mr. Keywell says, universities are “way too often shapers of formulaic minds,” and encourage students to repeat and internalize fail-safe ideas. 这个教训正是团购网站Groupon创始人布拉德·科维尔(Brad Keywell)冒险的基础，他也是美森博士在密歇根大学(University of Michigan)的学生。“我是失败价值的绝对传道者，失败是创造力的一部分，”科维尔先生说。他指出，Groupon是在网站ThePoint.com失败的基础上获得成功的，原本人们想通过网站组织集体维权行动，结果却组成了打折团购。美森博士给科维特先生的指导是，不仅要愿意承受失败，更要懂得失败是通向最终成功的关键道路。科维尔先生说，由于搞学术的人对失败敬而远之，大学“总是塑造出了太多思维刻板的人，”而且还鼓励学生重复和内化那些“万无一失”的想法。 Bonnie Cramond, director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at the University of Georgia, is another believer in taking bold risks, which she calls a competitive necessity. Her center added an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in creativity and innovation this year. “The new people who will be creative will sit at the juxtaposition of two or more fields,” she says. When ideas from different fields collide, Dr. Cramond says, fresh ones are generated. She cites an undergraduate class that teams engineering and art students to, say, reimagine the use of public spaces. Basic creativity tools used at the Torrance Center include thinking by analogy, looking for and making patterns, playing, literally, to encourage ideas, and learning to abstract problems to their essence. 乔治亚大学(University of Georgia)创造力与才能发展托伦斯中心(Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development)主任邦妮·克兰蒙德(Bonnie Cramond)也深信大胆冒险，她称之为参与竞争的必要之举。今年，该中心增设了创造力与创新跨学科研究生文凭项目。她说：“着眼培养创造力的新生将专研两个或更多专业的交集领域。”克兰蒙德博士说，当不同领域的想法碰撞时，将激发出新的思路。她援引了一门将工程和艺术专业学生组合的本科课程，学生们对公共空间使用提出了新设想。在托伦斯中心使用的基本创造力工具包括类比分析法、寻找规律并建模、玩鼓励新想法的游戏以及学习提取问题本质。 In Dr. Burnett’s Introduction to Creative Studies survey course, students explore definitions of creativity, characteristics of creative people and strategies to enhance their own creativity.These include rephrasing problems as questions, learning not to instinctively shoot down a new idea (first find three positives), and categorizing problems as needing a solution that requires either action, planning or invention. A key objective is to get students to look around with fresh eyes and be curious. The inventive process, she says, starts with “How might you…” 在伯内特博士的创造性研究概论课程中，学生们探索创造力的定义、富有创造力人群的特点以及提高自身创造力的策略。其中包括改变问题描述的方式（把困难描述成问句），学习不要本能地反驳新的想法（而要先找出它的三个优点），并且按需要的解决方式将问题分成需要行动、计划或发明的类别。课程的关键目的是让学生以好奇的态度，从新颖的视角去观察和思考。她说，发明开始于“你将怎样……”之类的问题。 Dr. Burnett is an energetic instructor with a sense of humor — she tested Mr. Cathcart’s martial arts padding with kung fu whacks. Near the end of last semester, she dumped Post-it pads (the department uses 400 a semester) onto a classroom desk with instructions: On pale yellow ones, jot down what you learned; on rainbow colored pads, share how you will use this learning. She then sent students off in groups with orders that were a litany of brainstorming basics: “Defer judgment! Strive for quantity! Wild and unusual! Build on others’ ideas!” 伯内特博士是一名充满活力且幽默风趣的指导员，她用功夫招式测试了卡思卡特先生的武术垫。在上一学期接近尾声时，她把便利贴板（全系一学期用400块板）倒在了教室书桌上，并说明：在淡黄色的板上记下你学到的东西；在彩虹色的板上分享你要怎样使用所学。然后，她让学位们分组执行一连串指令（头脑风暴的基础方法）：“延后评判！争取数量！疯狂发散！互相启发！” As students scribbled and stuck, the takeaways were more than academic. “I will be optimistic,” read one. “I will look at tasks differently,” said another. And, “I can generate more ideas.” 在学生们的尝试和受挫中，他们得到的不仅仅是学术上的收获。一名学生写道：“我将变得更加乐观。”另一名学生说：“我将以不同的方式看待任务。”还有的说，“我能够想出更多点子。” Asked to elaborate, students talked about confidence and adaptability. “A lot of people can’t deal with things they don’t know and they panic. I can deal with that more now,” said Rony Parmar, a computer information systems major with Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones circling his neck. 当要求学生们具体描述时，他们谈到了信心和适应能力。“许多人不能处理未知的情况，且变得慌张。我现在处理得更加得心应手了，”脖子上挂着Dr. Dre的Beats头戴耳机的计算机信息系统专业学生罗尼·帕马(Rony Parmar)说。 Mr. Cathcart added that, given tasks, “you think of other ways of solving the problem.” For example, he streamlined the check-in and reshelving of DVDs at the library branch where he works. 卡思卡特先生补充说，当拿到任务时，“你会去思考用其它方法来解决问题。”例如，他将他工作所在的图书馆分支的DVD登记和上架流程进行了精简。 The view of creativity as a practical skill that can be learned and applied in daily life is a 180-degree flip from the thinking that it requires a little magic: Throw yourself into a challenge, step back — pause — wait for brilliance to spout. 让自己置身于挑战中，后退一步，暂停，等待睿智方案的涌现——与这样认为创造力需要一点魔力的思维相比，将它看作是一项实用技能，能够通过学习获得并应用到日常生活中的观点是180度的翻转。 The point of creative studies, says Roger L. Firestien, a Buffalo State professor and author of several books on creativity, is to learn techniques “to make creativity happen instead of waiting for it to bubble up. A muse doesn’t have to hit you.” 布法罗州立学院教授及几本创造力主题的书籍的作者罗杰·法尔斯坦(Roger L. Firestien)说，创造力研究的目的是学习“使创造力产生而不是等待它冒泡”的技术，“创造力并不需要神的启示。” 劳拉·帕帕诺(Laura Pappano)是韦尔斯利学院韦尔斯利女性中心的驻院作家，她写有多本著作，包括《探秘学校的扭转乾坤》(Inside School Turnarounds)。 本文最初发表于2014年2月9日。 翻译：Charlie |
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