Constructing Creativity

One of my least favorite directions is "be creative." Nothing makes me shut down faster than being told to open up. (Ditto with "Relax," but that is a different post entirely.) I don't know if it's the cynic or the part of me that really, deeply, and profoundly hates being told what to do, which is the yang to the yin in me that loves a recipe and a knitting pattern, but I just don't like it. So, when I read about a class at Penn where students are told NOT to be creative but to plagiarize how could I think anything other than "Genius!" Not to mention "Honest!" Just thinking about it makes me want to plagiarize. In a good way! (And apparently with a lot of exclamation points.)