Newsletter – 23 June 2020

A Word from Mitchell Cavens

Secondary Teacher, Music and Design & Technology

“I am not a very creative person”, is something I often hear as a Music and Design & Technology teacher. You may have said this yourself. Maybe you believe that you are not able to complete tasks that rely on creativity. I’ve been investigating the legitimacy of this claim; is it possible that a human being created in the image of God is not creative, as God is creative?

In my Design & Technology class, students have shown that their ability to apply their own creativity in design has improved through practice and research. In class, students often undertake lateral thinking challenges in order to develop their ability to solve problems creatively. Students have confronted many circumstantial and personal challenges which impact their ability to design a project. Many have shown that they are learning to apply their creativity to these challenges and that these opportunities can actually benefit their designs.

One particular student found that financial challenges would impact his ability to redesign and renovate a room in his home. In response, he used his God-given creativity. Instead of physically redesigning the room, he decided to create an accurate 3D prototype. This has allowed him to model a much wider variety of materials and design ideas which he can physically apply later, when circumstances permit.

Time and time again, people have shown an incredible ability to utilise creativity, particularly in times of adversity, where creativity is necessary for survival. During wartime, people utilised their creativity in order to improve their chances in war, resulting in inventions such as microwave ovens, the internet, digital photos and canned food. During this COVID period, medical advances which would have taken many years, have only needed weeks to create, due to the pressure arising from adversity.

It may be that we do not lack creativity, we just don’t practice it because we think that our circumstances don’t require that kind of problem-solving. The reality is that we face issues every day and although God made us to be creative beings, we often choose not to utilise our creativity because it’s easy to get solutions with a click on google search, rather than exercising our creative muscles to solve these issues ourselves.

I hope and pray that you would all be encouraged to use your creative muscles; take things apart, put things together, work things out yourself, create art, write songs, write poems, build things. This is such a vital part of our identity in God and can be such a service to others. God is creative, and so are you.

He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.
Exodus 35:35