Drawn to art and design from an early age, and now a multi-billionaire, he should know. Having his early designs rejected by one major manufacturer after another, he might well have added: “If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again.”
Many teachers will have a potential inventor sitting in their midst who might never realise their potential. The question for schools is: how do they develop the next generation of innovators and creators who will positively contribute to the nation's future?
According to Steve Blundell, who develops courses in creativity for OCR, creativity is already there in most people - they just may not realise it.
“When you think about it, the rudiments are already there within each one of us. We all take risks, we all come up with imaginative solutions to unpredictable problems and we all learn from mistakes.
“We might not be very willing to take risks and we may stubbornly resist learning from our mistakes, but creativity is a dimension of the human condition,” he added.
Teaching, therefore, is about how children and young people can be encouraged to take and manage risks within a structured learning environment. He believes that children learn best when they are active participants in the learning process.
“We want to fully engage our students in experiencing the mysteries of a subject as well as teaching them how they can make sense of those mysteries for themselves,” he said. “Each subject has evolved through practitioners taking risks, being open to opportunities, and finding out about things in novel ways. But none of their experiences would have counted for anything had they also not been able to learn from all those practices.”
So to bring out the creativity in their students, teachers need to be aware of their own creativity in their own teaching, learning and planning. This includes their classroom organisation, the way they display pupils' work, and in their evaluations. Many teachers are excellent at this already and thrive on the challenge of producing ever new, interesting and motivating resources for their pupils.
OCR says it is aiming to allow teachers the flexibility to produce different work from their students every year. For example, the drama GCSE specification will allow centres to choose their own texts and stimulus material to teach to their strengths and to suit the needs of their students so that they get the most from their courses and their creativity is encouraged.
But there is another aspect to being creative and that is in teachers' relationships with their students: what means have they at their disposal, what strategies could they adopt, what mechanisms could they devise to encourage their students to take risks in their learning and to invest in their students' potential for being creative?
So what exactly inspires students to be creative? Mr Blundell believes everyone has a creative streak, often without even realising it, which manifests itself at the slightest provocation.
“For example, what happens when visitors suddenly turn up uninvited and the shops are closed?” he said. “We raid our fridges, freezers and cupboards to rustle up a quick snack or a feast. Without the tools and planning to solve this problem, we have been creative in making the best use of what we have and created a meal which, while not perfect, satisfies the needs of the moment.”
The need to be creative might also be a practical requirement. For example, most people know exactly what to do when a stranger falls over on the pavement and cries out for help.
We make them comfortable, call for help, and perhaps even fashion a make-shift sling if necessary until professional help arrives.
“In such as case, we have acted creatively, used what skills and materials we have available. The surprising thing is how many have done something like this and yet not been trained for it,” he said.
“We inspire others through our own actions. Teachers can offer the most inspiration for their students, not just with their knowledge, but with their ability to share with them the feelings and moments of discovery, of surprise. In that way they share in their successes, and tease out with them how mistakes provide learning tools for next time.”
Using creativity as a learning process is an important part of “real world” life - for instance, when working to a client's brief.
OCR's new GCSE, called Design & Technology: Product Design, for example, helps develop just those skills, providing students with a brief designed to encourage “open-mind” thinking about a design situation to respond in ways which might appear at first unrealistic, but which can be refined and developed.
