SAO as a Proponent of the Arts for Technology’s Sake

Buried within many news stories about off-shoring, downsizing and globalization is a consistent theme: Technological development has become the intellectual equivalent of a commodity crop.

Does creativity matter?
In the popular mind, creativity doesn’t matter to those in the technological field; all that matters are one’s math, science and engineering skills. Other countries are graduating more engineers, have students who score better on international tests and have cheaper labor costs. According to this line of reasoning, technology in general and the software industry in particular has a limited economic future in the US due to globalization – much like commodity crops, right?

Wrong. It is our creativity and innovation that has fueled our technological advantage. It takes creativity to harness technology to develop “the next big thing.” When computers were the size of refrigerators, someone had to dream that everyone would have one on their desktop. Someone had to imagine applications that would allow all schoolchildren in the world to access the best information that the world had to offer. These were creative people with ideas powerful enough to give America a huge technological – and economic – advantage.

Most of us within the industry know the truth about creativity and technology and the very positive economic future of the software industry. So we can spoof these popular insights and go on about our work, right?

Wrong. Increasingly, public policy objectives in Salem and DC have been developed that emphasize engineering graduates, science training and minimum math standards. While a stronger emphasis in these areas is certainly an improvement, if left to their own devices to execute these goals, well-intentioned policy leaders will be damaging the creativity of the next generation, ultimately leading to the imperilment of America’s technological advantage.

Creativity and global competition
Richard Florida, in his 2005 book, “Flight of the Creative Class,” postulated the following:

“Today, the terms of competition revolve around a central axis: a nation’s ability to mobilize, attract, and retain human creative talent. Every key dimension of international economic leadership, from manufacturing excellence to scientific and technological advancement, will depend on this ability.

This new global competition for talent creates a serious threat to the United States’ long-standing economic hegemony on three overlapping fronts. First, a wide range of countries around the world are increasing their ability to compete for global talent. Second, the United States is undermining its own ability to compete for that talent. And third, the U.S. is failing to cultivate and harness the full creative capabilities of its own people in ways that position it to compete effectively.”

Higher standards for education
Creativity is inspired in students with imaginative play, interactive reading, positive feedback, variability, free time and unregimented scheduling. However, these elements of a students’ educational experience are often the first to be sacrificed to meet the aforementioned goals.

For example, more math classes for students often come at the expense of art electives. High-stakes testing puts pressure on teachers to create rote lesson plans that are geared to the tests, but have limited time set aside for questions outside a narrow spectrum of thought. Beefing up engineering departments is a mandate to graduate more students quickly, not create graduation standards that ensure students have had a more rich liberal arts experience.

While higher standards in math, science and engineering are laudable, they alone will not accomplish the goal. We in the technology community need to lead efforts to improve our creative advantages as well.

I believe that the SAO needs to become more visible as a key proponent of the arts and creative studies – as well as for rigorous standards in the “hard sciences.” When we do this, we build an environment where people will start, move and grow their businesses successfully.

About the author
Harvey Mathews is president of the SAO. Prior to this role he was the lead advocate for education, technology, elections and fiscal policy issues for Associated Oregon Industries (AOI), the state’s largest comprehensive business association. His achievements in that role included $100 Million investment into Oregon start-up companies, creation of the Expanded Options program for high school students, and the development of the Oregon Open Primary. Mathews also worked in the Speaker’s Office in the Oregon House of Representatives and was a public school teacher at Sam Barlow High in Gresham. He is a proud alumnus of Western Oregon University. He can be reached at president@sao.org.