Manifesto

A synthesis of elements from a course or workshop, selected and organized so as to inspire as well as inform your efforts in extending the course/workshop topic further. An excerpt from an example, then some elaboration:

If there is one basic rule... that I, as a novice, have learned it is DON'T BE AFRAID! (Frangie, Novice Sage Manifesto)

Books such as Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way provide readers with a program for developing one's creativity, but what would be the equivalent for courses or workshops on other topics? In any case, given that a mark of creativity is to develop one's own program, not follow someone else's, what would your program—or framework—be for extending the topic of the course or workshop after they end? Now, all invention involves borrowing, so really the challenge is really to select and organize elements from sources encountered during and before this course or workshop. This synthesis—or Manifesto—provides a framework to inspire as well as inform your efforts. Complementing a Plan for Practice, the Manifesto may be:

idealistic as well as realistic

abstract as well as concrete

long-term as well as short- or medium-term

theoretical as well as practical

For a brief introduction to the experience of past students who prepared manifestos for critical thinking, see think-piece on Journeying to Develop Critical Thinking.

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Cameron, J. (1992). The Artist's Way. New York: Putnam.

(See Phase J)