September 2003: Vol. 82, No. 4September 2003: Vol. 82, No. 4 |
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Paul Torrance, known around the world as the "Father of Creativity" in recognition of nearly 60 years of research that became the framework for the field of gifted education, died July 12.
The 87-year-old professor emeritus of educational psychology invented the benchmark method for quantifying creativity and arguably created the platform for all research on the subject since. The "Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking" helped shatter the theory that IQ tests alone were sufficient to gauge true intelligence. The tests solidified what heretofore was only conceptual, namely that creative levels can be scaled and then increased through practice. Translated into more than 50 languages, the Torrance Tests are now used to create gifted education programs worldwide.
A March 2001 GM feature on Torrance showed him teaching problem-solving techniques to students in Santa Rosa, Calif.
"Paul Torrance dedicated his life's energies toward enhancing the recognition, acceptance and development of the creative personality in both education and the workplace," says Richard Olenchak, director of the University of Houston's Urban Talent Research Institute and president-elect of the National Association for Gifted Children. "Aside from his indefatigable effort being missed with his passing, the void of his personal warmth, authenticity, and devotion to humanity—particularly toward children and youth—makes the world a far more barren place."
In addition to developing the most widely used tests of creativity, Torrance also created the Future Problem Solving Program and developed the Incubation Model of Teaching. He authored dozens of books and more than 2,000 published articles on creativity during his career, making him one of the most published faculty members in UGA history.
Torrance remained prolific after his retirement. His 2001 book, Manifesto: A Guide to Developing a Creative Career, includes the results of his 40-year longitudinal study of creativity—the only one of its kind. The exhaustive research, which correlated test scores of 1950s elementary school children with what they later achieved in life, was of vital importance, said Torrance, in determining how people struggle to maintain their creativity and use their strengths to create their careers.
"We found that after 30 or 40 years other things became more important than achievement, intelligence, and creativity," said Torrance in a March 2001 feature in Georgia Magazine. "I call these 'Beyonder' characteristics, such as persistence, courage, willingness to take a risk, and loving and doing what you can do well."
Heightened awareness of the importance of creativity led to the development of gifted programs all over the world. In Georgia, a student's success on the Torrance Tests is key to admission into gifted programs, which exist because every school system is charged with targeting students' learning levels.
"Georgia was one of the first two states to mandate gifted programs in all school systems for kindergarten-12th grade," says Sally Krisel, the state's director of gifted programs. "When students excel, they deserve to be challenged and gifted programs are a great way to accomplish that. I have no doubt Georgia has excelled because of the influences of people like Torrance."
Torrance chaired the educational psychology department from 1966-78. He developed the Future Problem Solving program in 1974 as an academic activity for gifted students at Clarke Central High School in Athens. By 1977, the activities had grown into a year-long program with interscholastic competitions and become international in scope. Today, 300,000 students in grades K-12 in 41 states and several foreign countries are involved in future studies and creative problem-solving.
The Torrance Center for Creative Studies was established after Torrance's retirement in 1984 to continue his scholarly inquiry into the study, development and evaluation of gifted and creative abilities in individuals from diverse age-groups, cultures and economic backgrounds.
"He continually proved himself a genius—and not just in theory, but in application, which has affected thousands of teachers and millions of students," says Joan Franklin-Smutney, director for the gifted at National-Louis University in Evanston, Ill. "His work will not perish because he genuinely wanted to see humankind progress."
UGA food scientists are scrambling to make better eggs for soldiers' ready-to-eat meal kits
Neither incredible nor edible
Troops in the war in Iraq this year had MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) that were vastly improved since the 1991 Gulf War. But scrambled eggs weren't part of the equation. The army stopped buying scrambled egg MREs five years ago because they tasted so bad, says Romeo Toledo, a UGA food scientist who's trying to change all that.
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 UGA student Jeff Mitchell is serving as an in-house taste tester for food scientist Romeo Toledo, who is working to improve the quality of pre-prepared scrambled eggs for the Army's ready-to-eat meal kits. |
"The troops want them," says Toledo, "but the scrambled eggs in the MREs were rubbery, had a strange aftertaste—and even stranger colors, sometimes reddish and sometimes green."
MREs are the self-contained meals soldiers carry in flexible, tough bags made to withstand everything from rats to nerve gas. A chemically activated heating pouch that can raise the food temperature to 100 degrees in 10 minutes is standard issue with the meals.
"Out of the bigger trays used in field kitchens that feed 20," says Toledo, "the army estimates that at least 30 percent of the eggs end up in the trash."
The poor flavor comes from the heating process and long cooking times. "The MRE's were cooked for 45 minutes, and the trays were processed for two hours," says Toledo. "The eggs got very rubbery and often smelled like sulfur [a rotten egg smell]." To force the eggs down, soldiers doused them with barbecue or Tabasco sauce.
Cooking time was the first problem the UGA team tackled. "We increased the cooking temperature to 266 degrees Fahrenheit," says Toledo. That's still below the federally approved 275-degree limit for the plastic packaging. "This cut the cooking time of the MRE pouches down to 20 minutes and the tray cooking time down to 45 minutes."
Decreasing the cooking time alone made a huge difference, but not enough. The next problem was flavor.
The eggs are mixed with water and cooked in the pouch, so the flavor was similar to a boiled egg, says Toledo. The object was to make the eggs taste more like they'd been cooked in a frying pan. To get this taste, Toledo and his team mixed a little liquid margarine into the egg mix, as if they were scrambling eggs in a pan.
Then they passed the eggs under a radiant heater to brown only the surface while the rest of the eggs remain liquid. The whole batch is then blended, poured into pouches, sealed and processed. "The radiant heater generates a fried flavor," says Toledo.
Now the research team is tackling the final frontier of the army egg problem: texture.
"We have to dilute the eggs with water or they get too tough," says Toledo. "But when you open the packages, especially the bigger trays, the eggs are swimming in water. We are looking at adding some products like Xanthium gum, but we need to determine the optimal levels. Xanthium gum is already being used in frozen egg products, but we want to scale back the amount."
Toledo and his team have a good taste tester: Jeff Mitchell, a chief warrant officer in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps who begins working on a UGA food science masters degree this fall.
"I tried (the former scrambled-egg MREs) in a field exercise about six years ago," says Mitchell, "and they didn't taste much like eggs. They were more brown than yellow and the texture was strange—thin layers mashed together."
Mitchell says the new eggs are already a huge improvement. "They actually taste like eggs," he says. "They're pale yellow, you can see flecks of pepper in them, and the texture is much better."
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 Steve Wrigley |
Steve Wrigley, UGA's senior vice president for external affairs, has been named chair of the Georgia Humanities Council.
A former senior policy advisor and chief of staff for Gov. Zell Miller, Wrigley is a long-time board member of the humanities council, an independent, non-profit organization that supports educational activities that help Georgians learn about their heritage, thus preparing the state's citizenry to make important decisions for the future.
"Steve's diverse experiences and background are reflective of the mission of the Georgia Humanities Council," says GHC President Jamil Zainaldin. "Understanding and bridging the worlds of academia, business, and government are crucial to our society, and Steve brings a unique perspective in each of these arenas."
Revered author, English professor wrote Colors of Africa before he died
Kilgo taught, wrote with great passion
The late Jim Kilgo had a close call during his last book project, Colors of Africa, when complications from his battle with cancer caused him to slip into pneumonia and acute respiratory distress. But after a prayer vigil by members of Kilgo's church, doctors were amazed at his recovery. And, thus, here he was, posing Hemingway-like, with a 700-pound kudu bull antelope that he shot during a trip to Zambia in the spring of 2002.
"I was acquainted with Ernest Hemingway and Isak Dinesen and Peter Matthiessen, the tradition of white people who shaped their experiences of Africa into narrative," Kilgo wrote in what would be the last book of the former English professor's illustrious writing career, "and . . . I was hoping to do the same thing if I could hunt and kill a kudu."
With a novel and two books of creative nonfiction to his credit, plus numerous published essays on nature and hunting, Kilgo was equal to the challenge—even though he was on hormone treatment while in Africa.
"He wrote about things in a very straight-forward way without worrying about what others would think," says Hugh Ruppersburg, associate dean of Arts & Sciences and a former colleague of Kilgo in the English department. "He was more worried about what he would think when he was done."
When he returned from Africa, Kilgo put together a photo album with captions derived from his journal and showed them to Barbara Ras, then assistant director of the University of Georgia Press, with the idea of doing a book about Africa. Their conversations mirrored ones he'd already had with his wife and grown children—which is what Kilgo did with all of his books, beginning with oral drafts of a narrative he would eventually write in longhand on yellow legal pads and later type into a computer.
"He loved talking . . . he loved friendship and telling stories, just enjoying the spontaneity of conversation," says former English department colleague Coleman Barks. "That was his process of writing—go out and observe and then write with clarity and epiphany."
Kilgo planned to begin work on a second novel, but he lost his battle with cancer on Dec. 8, 2002, three months before Colors of Africa was published by the UGA Press.
"It was a real blow and a loss to the community of writers who cherished him," says Ras, who is now director of the Trinity University Press in Texas.
Educated at Wofford and Tulane, Kilgo joined the English department in 1967 and spent his entire teaching career at the University. He was instrumental in the formation of the creative writing program, and he served as head from 1994-96.
Tray Butler, a staff writer at Creative Loafing, was inspired by the creative nonfiction class he took from Kilgo at UGA.
"He taught the kind of classes you could not nod off in—he was very intense," says Butler (ABJ '97), who notes that, at the same time, "there was a lot of subtlety in the way he taught. You had to be on top of your game because he knew the material very well."
Kilgo wasn't necessarily a friend to students, but he was very definitely a mentor. He was available to students outside class, connecting with them through a mutual love for writing—especially with those who demonstrated the kind of enthusiasm he felt for the art form. He kept in touch with students and continued to encourage them in their careers long after they had left UGA.
"He had one of the biggest hearts I've ever known," says Judy Long, editor-in-chief of Hill Street Press, which published Kilgo's The Hand-Carved Crèche and Other Christmas Stories in 1999. "He was very compassionate, very giving—and very spiritual. He lived in the universe, not just in Athens, Georgia."
For more information on UGA Press books by Jim Kilgo, go to www.ugapress.com.
Enrollment will expand in high-demand areas such as business, education
UGA will fill 50 faculty vacancies
The University will be able to hire 50 new faculty members and expand enrollment in some high-demand areas as a result of a 15-percent tuition increase approved by the board of regents. Deans can begin hiring faculty immediately, though the hirings are likely to be spread throughout the 2003-04 academic year. There are currently 200 faculty vacancies at UGA.
According to Provost Arnett Mace, the additional faculty will allow the University to increase enrollment in areas such as business, graphic design, early childhood education, engineering, music education, consumer economics, fashion merchandising/furnishings/interiors, and veterinary medicine.