I have always been more of a skills based learner than a knowledge retainer. As a child I would save wrapping paper, tear up magazines and claim old birthdays cards in order to make paper shoes with empty toilet roll tubes for the heels. I would spend hours at my wooden desk which I had one Christmas off my Grandad and Grandma (this was later vandalised by my younger sister who painted it with sparkly purple nail varnish) I would draw, paint, design, stick, glue, mould and build. Being creative was in my genes, my Mum’s first job was in a fabric shop, my Grandma taught me how to sew and I would spend my childhood in my Grandad’s garage with my own little set of tools- hammering nails into wood and decorating it with felt tips.
Being able to create something that didn’t exist at the start of the day is why I love teaching creative subjects; at the start of a lesson it is just a piece of paper and bottles of paint, a blank screen and a set of digital tools, a flat piece of fabric and a spool of thread or 100g of flour and an egg. An hour, day or weeks later an image appears, a garment or a bowl of pasta. Those initial items or ingredients don’t do much by themselves but when combined with some imagination, patience and some creativity an entirely new product is made which never existed before.
Creating artwork and cooking has taught me that experimentation and continuous learning require a safe environment, where you know that it is okay to make mistakes, and nothing serious happens if you fail- apart from the occasional burnt cake and bread that ended up on the shed roof for the seagulls, I’ve never had an major disasters! Scran School allows both adults and kids to try new things, explore new flavours and create something that didn’t exist at the start of the day.
“You can’t use up creativity, the more you use the more you have” Maya Angelou