Creativity and Art

Normally I would introduce things with my opinion but first off i'd like to show y'all the deffintion of creativity and art. These are the deffintion from dictionary.com:

Creativity; noun

1. the state or quality of being creative.

2. the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts.

3. the process by which one utilizes creative ability: Extensive reading stimulated his creativity.

Art; noun

1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

2. the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection.

3. a field, genre, or category of art: Dance is an art.

Okay so now it's my turn to state me opinion!  I know people think that art is the end product, I disagree. To me everything is art , no matter what. Creativity is just something helps makes the art personalised. Everything is a piece art because it was an original idea and and was sculpted. In my eyes even thoughts are art. They are unquic to the person and will always be differnt and even genuius ideas.
I know a lot of people would and do disagree with this but, if noting is art then why does art exist? I just doesnt make any sense. Everything isn't supposed to be beautful and covered with butterflies, some of what we see day to day is going to be ugly and some people will scratch there head when they see it, but a select few will get it.
Art is everything, and anything. People just need to open up and see what's around them and look and think about what they see.

My Media Assignment Struggle

My dad and I trying to act normal 

WARNING: This is me trying to get my thoughts straight. I don't know why i posted it but ya if you want to read about my passions and how I'm terrible at decision give it a read ;)

In my beloved media class we were asked to find something we are passionate about and do an assignment on it about it, and present how you use creativity for it. It seems very simple for most, but for me this is extremely hard. I thought and i thought more on this and came up with nothing. I then when to the one person who generally knows me the most, my dad. He came up with this list for me:
-Fishing
-Horses
-Baking
-Photography
-Being weird/crazy (not using that one)
I took his advise and i thought about all these topics. This made my decision even harder. I thought long and hard and I came up with pro's and con's for all these and I can't do a presentation of all these so I'm hoping when I write these all down, I come up with my favorite, but I will also be able to show more than one thing that I'm passionate about. So here we go.

Fishing
Now to people fishing is generally extreamly boring or you love it. For me I love it. The reason I chose to fishing is because it's the one thing that I have continously done since I was about 3 years old with one of those kid fishing poles. The reason I love fishing is because it feeds my compeitive side of me. My brother (Jesse), dad, and I always have a compeition to see who can catch the most fish. FYI i almost always win! The only struggle I have with this topic is a hands on activity, and how I use creativity for it. I don't generally get creative when i go out and try to catch a fish, I simply just go cast my line and wait unpatiently. I mean does try how many times you can hook your brothers sweater creative?

Kai (left) and Twilia(right) 

Horses
This is agruably my favioute and most passionate topic. I have had i great obession with these 1000 pound animals since i was a young child. I currently own two amazing horses, Kai and twilia. Kai is a retired racehorse who is my 22 year old baby, and Twilia is my miniature horse with a huge heart but shes spunky. Twilia is broke to drive in a cart, and Kai is my riding horse. I use creativity with these two, to try new things. I will come up with a creative yet somewhat stupid idea and will do it. Currently both horses know how to shake a paw, and twilia knows how to go up stairs. The only problem I see with this topic is the hands on component. The only two ideas that I could come up with is A)Bringing Twilia in for my presentation and let people see her shake a paw and pet her or B)Buy a class set of broomstick horses and let the class go run around outside.

Baking
Being almost 1/2 my family coming from menonite backgrounds of course i know and love to bake, and cook. Baking is probably something I could make a carrer out of if I wasn't go probably going collage to be an accountant. I bake every weekend for my grandparents and great aunt. I have had a strong passion for it since I was about 7. Baking is one of my easier choices for my assignment for me. Creativity is almost always used whether it decorating, making new recipes, or improving old ones. Plus the hands on activity would be a breeze! Just make some cupcakes and let the class decorate them!

Photography
For me photography is that hidden thing that close to no body knows that i have an interest in. I have only been starting to take a lot of photos and actually trying in the last few years. This is the easiest choice but its so over done. I mean to me i think im awful at photography. But i do have a few that i like. For me photography isn't that much of a creative process. If the picture fall under: animals, horses, horse racing, or something i like i'll just take a picture. There no creative process. Plus the other thing is I have no idea what to do for the hands on part of the assignment. Some of the photos that I'm actually willing to let people see are below:

Through out all this writing I was hoping I would be able to clear my head of all the ideas that were jumping around. I guess it did a little but I still have a lot of decisions left to make. So if anybody that actually comes across this post, please give me some imput! I'm still lost as ever.

Sit, Talk, Roll Over

From a very young age we are taught how to sit still, talk only when talked to, and to follow the rules. If we deny to follow or go against them we are punished. We are punished by making the smart people feel dumb, and the not so smart champions.We are forced to be produced in numbers, and types. We are forced to be what the education system and the government tell us we are supposed to be. We are the group that are not creative because we have had that beaten out of us along our school years. We are teenagers. We are the victims of the educational system.                  

 “The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn't need to be reformed -- it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”-Ken Robinson 

Today in class we had a discussion about how schools and the educational system is killing the creativity in children. In my opinion I agree with the side that said educational systems are killing creativity. The current education system was build in the industrial revolution which emphasizes the needs for English and math. It is the furthest thing from MODERN. 

As a student in the current education system I can tell you straight up that creativity is killed. If a student try to get creative or try something new, they will automatically be shut down and told to redo it properly. The best example I can give you is the Grade 10 Literacy test. All that the literacy test wants you to know is how to make an essay and prove your point in the most boring way, I really wish I knew that the first time i wrote it. I also gather from the people I talked to that the children that hated English and go by the standards easily got higher marks, and the people that enjoy English and are very creative were scored lower. 

No matter where you are in the world you will be told what to do, and how to do it. As student I hate this and honestly want to change the education system. But i face another problem, the problem of not knowing how to make a change. As students we are taught to sit, talk, and follow, but we were never told how to be a leader. We have no idea how to make a change. From the beginning we were taught to follow not lead. So when we are told to make a change how are we supposed to do it? 

Elmira Students following suit?

The students in the documentary seem to play a part that has been dictated by the media. What stereotypes do you see in these people? Do you feel that Elmira students also fall into "playing the roles" that media establishes? 

 The stereotypes that you can clearly notice is the young teen romance, jocks, "queen bee", and the "nerd", then the middle people. The young love which is so over done with the whole your gonna meet your soul mate is played so terribly seen in this documentary. Then you have the jock. The stereotypical males that could care about themselves and what my boyfriend calls "meat heads" . They care about sports and nothing else. This is shown through the basketball player Colin. Of course then you must have the "queen bee". She is the ruler of the highschool and is a bitch. You can pretty much quess who this was played by. Then the infamous middle people. They are the people that that have no classification. They are seen as outsiders, and weird.

Elmira is known as your "hick" school. Little do people know is that we are one of the smartest schools and known for our serious drug problems. But if you look closer, closer at the social standings of people, you will see in is somewhat similar yet completely different.

The similarity that I find throughout the documentary is the social standings. The social standings so indeed exist in a high school setting.  Just walk down the hall and you will be able to see them. The people that are constantly covered themselves in all the expensive name brands usually all hang out and know each other well. This group can quite often be the group of the bullies. I know this because I have fallen victim to them once or twice. These people are the partiers and the children who can be nice, if they are willing to come down to your level.  The middle group is where the vast majority of the students are found. Sure they don’t all talk to each other but they have a sensible respect for everyone. These people are the come in all shapes and sizes, quite to downright crazy. Then there the “nerds”, these are the kids that are so quite in class, but once you get to know them are the kindest most caring people. They are so brilliant and everyone has respect for them. Now they aren’t bullied. They become friends with generally the higher social standings.

Now this is where I don’t agree. The biggest thing the movie was wrong about was the stereotypes. They don’t exist. Sure you have your athletes, and your mathletes but they come from all different social standings. And the “jocks” aren’t as terrible as they all seem in movies. In fact I’m proud to say that I date a “jock”.  Yes mathetes are indeed not as nerdy as they are seen. My best friend is the smartest person I know and they only thing she wants to do after a hard long day is party. These silly little stereotypes simple do not happen! You don’t get shoved in the hallways, and obviously you break all the stereotypes.  

Code Conventions Advertisement

Please be nice. This is the very first time i have ever done anything like this! It took me over two overs to try and figure out this program! 

Free Willy

I know you all have been to Marine Land, Sea World or any other marine life "habitat". You've also seen the commercials of the cute and friendly dolphins that everyone loves, but he truth that you don't see is these animals are being stripped from the wild, and their families just for the factor of human entertainment. As seen in this picture to the right, the killer whales dorsal fin is flopped over. This is what happens when a whale is kept in a small tank. The collapse of the dorsal fin is very rare in the wild.                                                                                      The whales that you find in these facilities generally have major mental trauma from the fact that that they are being man handled and stripped from everything they know, and confined to the confines of the fish bowl like conditions. From this mental trauma they can become mentally unstable. The reports from newspapers, television news, and online news groups, occasionally say a whale will kill someone. They place full blame on the whales, and pity the deceased trainer. In my opinion these trainers should not be pitied, but instead shamed. They willingly walk into a tank with a killer whale, that is mentally unstable from the actions of that said trainer. How is the whale to be blamed? Is it truly whales fault for being that way? He would have been normal if he was not stripped from his pod and man handled. 

The picture above is a picture of a dolphin being stripped from his pod, and after this mentally traumatic kidnapping, will be sold.  This traumatic event will soon find them in the same situation as the killer whales. So the next time you see a Marine Land or Sea World commercial, just remember every single one of those animals were kidnapped from there homes.