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Dawson, Karen

College of Education and Social Services

2012

M. Ed.

Creativity is a highly prized quality. Recent research has shown a measurable decline of creativity in schoo1 children in the United States. Many reasons are being suggested. In my view the worst obstacle to creativity is the fear of failure. Various facets of society in the United States reflect an unhealthy expectation of success; we expect success to follow success, and have very little patience with failure. In my thesis, I promote a philosophy of failure, under which failure is to be better welcomed as part and parcel of the creative process. It is necessary to understand the context within which the flames of fear are fanned, so that a more holistic acceptance of failure-- its meaning and its usefulness--can be supported.
My research draws on my experience as a visual artist as I identify aspects of the so-called crisis in creativity that emerges from the art world. The research also relies on my experience as a small business owner, for personal insight as to the relationship between failure and creativity in the business world. Twelve years of teaching in a Vermont Correctional Center has given me an inroad with heart to the world of education. It was in working with those students that I learned my best lessons about the importance of supportive environments for learning to be creative.
Examination of concepts related to failure and creativity such as progress and gridlock, fear and paralysis, order and disorder, boredom, resilience, negative capability, and wabi-sabi supports my conclusion that failure needs much more limelight of the benevolent kind. If we are to find any hope in a world that seems to be ever more burdened with problems, promoting creativity is of paramount importance. We need an injection of sanity into our lives, beginning with the lesson that failure is not a four letter word. Failure is a vital ingredient along the gorgeous passage through the creative life.