Education, Aesthetics, and Mandalas! Say What?

I know this doesn't seem to pertain to crafting, cosplaying, and the rest of my blog. Yet, in all reality it very much does.  About a week ago a friend of mine posted an album on facebook of various mandalas that she had made.  She even has her own blog feel free to check it out here ---------> Adventrues of a Craftaholic.  The photo album also contained a link with a video that showed you how to make your own mandalas, and I tried it for myself.  I used to make patterns and designs in middle school using graph paper.  If I could find those I would post pictures of them as well, but alas, I have yet to find them.  Here is the video for the mandalas  -------> http://www.premaspace.com/mandalas/.

Something I've come to realize while I started making these is that I have a renewed sense of self and creativity.  I love learning new things, and I believe that education is a wonderful thing.  Even higher education.  That said there are some very fundamental things that are wrong with it.  Instead of trying to explain everything myself just watch this video made by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.  It is an amazing video.  I think everyone should watch it.  ------*CLICKY*------->  Changing Education Paradigms.  Simply put our educational system smothers creative thinking.  We are taught that there is only one right answer to all things.  Which simply isn't true.  Yet for 12-13 years of our lives we are punished for thinking "out side the box".  Our educational systems teach us how to think.  We are afraid of thinking in a different way from fear of punishment.  Now that a lot of educational systems have gotten rid of their arts programs due to funding cuts I believe things will get worse.  Creative thinking is what you need for problem solving.  Having the ability to be in a situation and think your way out of is a critical life skill that many people are loosing.

Back when I was taking music education courses I had a professor sit us down for some rather thought provoking group discussions.  These ranged from "Define Art," "Define Music," to "Why is Art Important in Education."  These are rather important things to know and think about for any art or music educator.  Not that art education doesn't suffer the same problems as the rest of the educational system, but that it does support learning to think creatively on your own and learning to trust yourself.  A fascinating book is "The Perfect Wrong Note: Learning to Trust Your Musical Self" by William Westney.  I encourage everyone to read at least the first few chapters.  If you are a musician or the parent of a musical child I would encourage you to read the whole thing.  This is one of the few books I have two copies of.  One for me to always have on hand, and one to lend to people.  That is how much I love this book.  The main problem is that we are obsessed with notions of "perfection".  Our concepts of beauty and perfection are based on mathematics and symmetry (or something that is quantifiable and measurable).  There have been countless studies and papers written on this topic.

I've spent a large number of years living in an academic mind set.  23 year to be exact.  I love learning.  Working full time and going to college part time made my educational adventure take longer than I would have expected.  As a result of this.  I had lost my feeling of self, and my feeling of creativity.  These mandalas have helped my creativity come back.  Remember back in your high school days when you felt like you could do anything, be anything, take on the world?  I feel like that again.  I had lost myself, and now I have found myself again.  The trick is that no matter what you think at the beginning of your mandala keep going.  I've found that I don't really like what my mandalas look like after the first few steps, but I love what the finished product looks like.  There is quite a few great life lessons that come up while working on these for me.  Starting with "trust yourself," "there is no 'right' answer," and "we can't always see the whole picture from the small steps we make, but then in the end we will be left with something truly amazing."  Give it a try.  There is no harm in it, and there may be some marvelous life lessons in it for you as well.

Thanks for the tip Vicky, and happy mandalaing to everyone.  >^.~<