Member-only story
How Did Creativity Manifest In Your Life?
By accident, by influence, by small degrees?
Creativity manifests in a life in any manner of ways. Sometimes it’s by accident, through the chance discovery of a passion. Sometimes it’s by degrees over years and years and years. Sometimes it’s like an avid green shoot taking root in the crags of a dry brick wall.
For me, it was at school at the the age of around 10 or 11 that the first spark struck. Young, hardly aware of myself, I came under the influence of an inspirational teacher who made me see things in a different light.
Then, like the accumulated pages of a photograph album, the idea of creativity built up in snapshots, moments of brevity but of lasting significance.
It hardly needs saying that a school teacher can have a profound effect on their students. Few ever wield such influence over the people in the their ward, and in the work of crafting of a child’s outlook, a teacher is uniquely positioned. The characteristics of children are not fixed or destined, but where there is a propensity towards certain avenues of behavior, then the influence of a teacher can be vital in cementing (or destroying) that tendency.
I doubt there was a child in his class who didn’t feel an uncommon warmth towards this teacher — whom I won’t name.
