The invention of "focket" |fʌk ɪt|, childhood and the creativity of innocence and naivety

This is a story about a garden, parental difficulty, and how a child invented a new sport in a spontaneous moment of partial naivety.

The worst cricket pitch in the UK?

Last summer I was playing in the garden with my eldest daughter (above). She had just turned 7 years old. We were playing cricket and taking turns to bat and bowl on an admittedly terrible wicket (slope, long grass, interfering cats). She was beginning to get into her stride batting when she completely misjudged a delivery, swiped her bat through nothing, and then kicked the plastic ball straight up in the air. Before even reaching the top of its arc she shouted "Fuck it!" and grinned at me. What!? Er...?

I was stunned. Where had she picked this sort of language up? Who has she heard saying this? I composed myself, stared straight at her (adopting a serious-but-quizzical expression) and said, "I beg your pardon young lady?" She was unphased and even mildly disappointed at my apparent lack of insight or imagination; "You know? 'Foo-cket', it's a cross between football and cricket."

I fell over laughing without any acceptable way of explaining quite why I found this such a relief and so amusing.

Now clearly, 'Foo-cket' would probably never take off in reasonable way for the obvious reasons (consider the complaints to the BBC about language used during radio coverage alone). The invention of this combination or hybrid sport did, however, involve approximately 0.4 seconds deliberation, emerged spontaneously entirely out of thinking context and activity (we were doing sport and being 'physical' not playing 'word games' at the time-she wasn't trying to invent new sports), and revealed something quite fascinating, to me, about human creativity and learning.

Firstly, part of my daughter's thinking (her subconscious) was obviously busy playing with descriptors and language related to her activities whilst she was otherwise apparently entirely engrossed in hand-eye-coordination and application of specific physical skills and techniques. Part of her wasn't thinking about what she was doing but rather on how these processes might be described or how they could be conceptualised. She was 'riffing' with concepts and ideas and her subconscious threw an idea to her conscious thinking that was so clear that it found occasion to be vocalised and become a shred thought. She innovated and communicated spontaneously, without 'attempted thought'.

Secondly, the humour inherent in this moment of 'spontaneous neologism' was only apparent to me at the time (I deliberately downplayed the incident with my daughter in case she encouraged her classmates to establish "fuck it" as the favourite playground game) and to 'adults' (or 'grown ups') in re-telling. The very basis of what is funny (this plausible sport name sounds the same as something you are generally not culturally supported in shouting at your parent at the age of 7), was not a factor in my daughter's thinking at the moment of creation (thankfully).

Finally, give that perhaps my favourite explanation of how to be creative is 'combine everything you know with everything you know', this moment insight suddenly made me realise that this is exactly what children can only do from an early age. That is what conscious experience is through early stages of development. It's only when consciousness becomes more 'developed' that it becomes more capable of compartmentalisation and the cognitive 'switching off' of particular neural pathways when 'focused' thinking or activity is required (See George Land -- 'Breakpoint and Beyond', 1998, for more detailed insight into the impact of formal education on divergent thinking capability).

I like think that this anecdote demonstrates that:

• Creativity can emerge without conscious effort.
• Creativity can sometimes be invisible to the originator (require external recognition).
• Creativity can require collaboration to realise potential.
• It is possible for a 7-year-old child to be more creative with ideas than an internationally published creativity researcher when playing cricket.

I realise that at any given moment I am getting progressively better at screening out more and more of what I know as I 'concentrate' and 'focus'. I think of this as (perhaps optimistically) as a product of sophistication and complexity rather than an inevitable indication of cognitive decline, but nevertheless recognise this as something to guard against, resist and counter. The ability to both cultivate subconscious association and 'play', and to allow ideas to 'reach the surface' and be shared is hugely important.

Whenever you struggle to generate the ideas you need just think 'Fuck It'. You might just find your subconscious has the answers.