So what does it matter to be creative? Obviously a sense of creativity has helped those involved in the aforementioned cases; right now Chris Brown is probably enjoying a nice swim in his pool of money. Such examples as those presented earlier demonstrate the difference creativity makes, as each work presented has brought in millions of dollars for their creators. And the correlation between creativity and success isn’t confined just to songs and movies. In Cathy Davidson’s Project Classroom Makeover, she presents a personal narrative regarding her ex-mother-in-law, who taught elementary school in a three-room schoolhouse in a rural Canadian mountain town. Rather than teaching in the lecture-and-notes style, Mrs. Davidson taught what was required of the school systems in her own style: “she refused, ever to teach a test…she [taught] her way, as a challenge, a game, an interactive and communal learning activity” (Davidson, 65). Mrs. Davidson taught her kids in a more creative way that appealed to all of her students; even those students who usually struggled in school found themselves understanding the materials she taught them, thanks to her many teaching tricks. And her results were quantitative: Davidson notes that “for many years, there were more former residents of Mountain View with PhDs, MDs, or law degrees than from any other town in Alberta...besides Edmonton and Calgary” (Davidson, 65). After all, it sounds obvious, but it’s worth noting: is it crazy to assume that being creative with an act or work will make it more appealing to its audience?
That’s my original 4th paragraph, and during peer review Marimar suggested that I have less summary of Davidson’s text, so I decided to reduce my summary slightly and add an example to make the paragraph more about my analysis of it, and to back up Davidson’s claims. This is my new one:
So what does it matter to be creative? Obviously a sense of creativity has helped those involved in the aforementioned cases; right now Chris Brown is probably enjoying a nice swim in his pool of money. Such examples as those presented earlier demonstrate the difference creativity makes, as each work presented has brought in millions of dollars for their creators. And the correlation between creativity and success isn’t confined just to songs and movies. In Cathy Davidson’s Project Classroom Makeover, she presents a personal narrative regarding her ex-mother-in-law, who taught elementary school in a three-room schoolhouse in a rural Canadian mountain town. Rather than teaching in the lecture-and-notes style, Mrs. Davidson taught in her own style: “she refused, ever to teach a test…she [taught] her way, as a challenge, a game, an interactive and communal learning activity” (Davidson, 65). Thanks to these creative teaching methods, even those students who usually struggled in school found themselves understanding the materials she taught them. And her results were quantitative: Davidson notes that “for many years, there were more former residents of Mountain View with PhDs, MDs, or law degrees than from any other town in Alberta...besides Edmonton and Calgary” (Davidson, 65). Mrs. Davidson is hereby demonstrating that being creative in one’s work can lead to a more successful product. To provide an example outside of the entertainment industry, take the Los Angeles Lakers of the early 2000’s. Their coach, Phil Jackson, used a creative type of offensive style called the Triangle offense; not only was this offensive style easy for the players to adapt to and thrive under, but it also was difficult for opposing defenses to pick up on, as it was more complex than the typical offenses they would see throughout the season. Under this offense, the Lakers won five NBA Championships, and produced two of the greatest players the sport has ever seen. As was the case in both of these scenarios, a creative twist on a work made it more appealing to its audience and therefore made this audience more successful. After all, it sounds obvious, but it’s worth noting: is it crazy to assume that being creative with an act or work will make it more appealing to its audience?
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