"The only true voyage of discovery is not looking for new landscapes, but looking with new eyes." Marcel proust
We know that constant innovation is the only source of sustainable competitive advantages over time. Technology makes previous year's innovation obsolete. Change may be the only constant, it is also the eternal challenge for educators seeking to prepare students for the future. If the world is always in flux, what should teachers teach? What should schools do to prepare the next generation for the drastic changes that are transforming the way the world lives and works? Is the current curriculum satisfactory? Today, when time is the greatest innovator, should we apply more and new remedies rather than wait for the greater evils?
The above requires a great party of ideas, it is known that creation is trial and error, it is correcting and reformulating. It comes with years of study, hard work, with many frustrations and few joys. Tomás Alba Edison said that a genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.
There is no idea without concept. The concept is the mental representation of the object. To communicate a concept the word is needed, without it to speak of a “stone” we should appeal to what it is: - hard, heavy, rough, etc. - and the concept would lose its unity. On the other hand, without the image, the sensory support would be lacking.
The creators combine the image and the word. Einstein pointed out that imagination is more important to him than knowledge. Instead of complex mathematical equations, he spoke of moving trains, lightning strikes, free-falling elevators.
You have to see further into a world full of information. Knowledge uses it to create concepts and ideas. Wisdom is the fruit of knowledge and experience. Without knowledge there is no creative game. Mirror neurons copy the factors that lead to the goal. Ideas fly and are carried by the wind. You have to catch them in the air with notebook in hand. Pasteur said that chance only favors the prepared minds. They teach us to think of problems to solve that generate more problems. This plunges us into a vicious cycle that destroys enthusiasm. Appreciative Inquiry shapes the habit of finding the good and making it viable. Instead of focusing the mind on the problem, it relies on positive discovery to strengthen it and make it happen.
Let's not forget that, in the cycle of knowledge, work, inspiration and innovation, nothing is learned without being excited and motivated. Emotional intelligence has the floor. The brain works when it opens.
The cavern…
In the myth of the cave, Plato tells us that some unfortunate prisoners have been chained to the wall of a dark cavern that, depriving them of direct daylight, only allows them to see the shadows of the free men who walk outside it. In this way, the prisoners in Plato's cave only perceive those vague ghosts of external reality, which is denied to them until, as time passes, and when they have already forgotten what before, when they too were free they perceived, they end for believing that reality, all reality, only consists of what the dark wall of its cave shows them. But one day, fortunate and unfortunate at the same time, one of the prisoners frees himself from his chains and goes out to discover with amazement the wealth, the wonder, of the outside world. Happy, but also generous,the freed prisoner then descends to where his former companions still lie, to tell them what he saw and invite them to break their chains and ascend into the light together with him. Here the tragedy breaks out, because the prisoners of the cave not only do not believe their exultant companion, but, alarmed by the scandalous truth revolution that he proposes, they end up killing him.
"If I can't find my way, I'll open it myself." Napoleon
When a system works, the temptation is to leave it on autopilot. The natural attitude to success is to repeat the winning behavior without realizing the risks involved. To organize chaos we automate responses, but being competitive is knowing how to react to changes or better provoke them. That virtue is not programmable. The mind does not close its routes with the past, it can build parallel paths without destroying existing ones.
Break the routine. Taking small steps keeps your brain in shape. Unafraid of the unknown, he easily moves from curiosity to wonder. There are zones of comfort, stress and tension. The new pathways are neural branches, like trees that carry energy. Training intelligence is to move the switch from automatic to manual. Combine floating attention with focus.
Imagining, in a world dominated by abstractions, comes from observing the shapes, colors, tastes, smells and sensations.
The image captivates for its beauty, the concept is useful but not exciting, its function is utilitarian. The image produces influential sensations that the imagination enhances.
In a materialistic world, concepts prevail and imagination is subordinated. But imagination will be essential if we want to reinvent the future.
Observing produces its effects, the reality is the same, what changes is the vision. The creative gaze captures what the conventional gaze does not see, even though the matter is the same. The observation is not innocent, if it is positive it generates endorphins, neurotransmitters of well-being and high performance. Negative perceptions make you sick.
The word is the complement of the image: reading teaches how to look. The logical perception of the left hemisphere broadens the sensation, gives the stimuli their meaning.
The vertigo for the mechanical, is a fall that fascinates, that fuses but that does not promote freedom. It is letting yourself be carried away, without offering any resistance, by brute force.
Development of perceptual ability. The educational process must enable the discovery of splendor in simple things with a look that sees beyond.
In a natural source emerges the sprouting of the deep, the incessant running, the giving without measure, the mystery of the unknown; it is a symbol of life. This is encounter.
The careful observation of the details, the understanding of the meaning, produce the creative tension between the work and the person who contemplates it, who becomes aware of their own being.
By sensitizing perception, the beauty of nature emerges in its richness, it is reached with a transfiguring gaze. The artist is able to capture it with an unstructured imitation. This splendor disappears with functionality. Aura and utility are irreconcilable: the work of art is an end in itself, it is an object of contemplation. In education, knowledge is transmitted and attitudes are promoted, such as aesthetics.
The more capable one is for astonishment, the more human it will be, man is a being for astonishment. What must change is your utilitarian propensity.
Technology made concept prevail over idea. Thus the soul of intelligence was lost. The concept abstracts the essence but does not reflect the sensory contact. He plucks the flower to meet her, but thus kills her. The concept measures quantity, not quality.
Creativity is like a wild horse, the concept must tame, guide and guide it. If it is not done there is a risk that it will take us anywhere.
When Manuela, my goddaughter of three and a half years, looks at me between her legs, she knows that she sees a different world.
