It’s hard to think about summer without remembering going to summer camps both as a child and later as an instructor. My favorite camp experience was the annual gathering of Creative Scholars in Louisiana. Each year, students who rated high scores on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking were invited to join together for a two week learning experience. Initially we met in Natchitoches and later in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I was fortunate to be among the small group of instructors working with these students who were sixth graders or older. We wrote and shared our own creative thinking curriculum.
We instructed students in three basic creative thinking strategies, Synectics, Lateral Thinking, and Creative Problem Solving. Students also took electives that included inventioning, book writing, song composing and many others. The students always challenged us as only high creatives can do, but we loved it. I conducted my masters degree research with the first group of students and used a good deal of my learning there to set up my doctoral experiment. Therefore, it’s hard not to think of Creative Scholars in June each year.
While throwing out items from my files, I came across a list by the man who first dreamed of developing the Creative Scholars program, Dr. E. Paul Torrance. Although Dr. Torrance is now deceased, his words still ring true to individuals all around the world who value creative thinking.
How To Grow Up Creatively Gifted
- Don’t be afraid to “fall in love with” something and pursue it with intensity. (You will do best what you like to do most.)
- Know, understand, take pride in, practice, develop, use, exploit and enjoy your greatest strengths.
- Learn to free yourself from the expectations of others and to walk away from the games they try to impose upon you.
- Free yourself to “play your own game” in such a way as to make good use of your gifts.
- Find a great teacher or mentor who will help you.
- Don’t waste a lot of expensive, unproductive energy trying to be well-rounded (Don’t try to do everything; do what you can do well and what you love.)
- Learn the skills of interdependence. (Learn to depend upon one another, giving freely of your greatest strengths and most intense loves.)
The above manifest by Dr. Torrance makes more sense to me with each passing year. He certainly made it OK to be creative.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that other side of summer camp – BUGS. If you didn’t get bitten by something or have a rash or get sunburned, it just wasn’t summer camp. There were always lots of varmints around ranging from snakes that the guys used to scare the girls, to turtles. 
Those varmints are much tamer in today’s jewelry studio as shown by the one I made this morning.
Ah, the good old days of summer camp. Alas, I think I’d rather stay in by the air conditioner for now. I’m not sure I could still handle the exuberance of those sixth graders.