Creativity

Teaching and parenting used to be considered arts. This seemed to fit with the idea of individualization, varying personalities, and talents. I love the word creativity because to me it has such a broad meaning. I like to use it synonymously with problem solving. We all know that society feels the need to raise mathematics and science as important focuses but yes even those areas involve creativity. Consider that there are a variety of ways to combine numbers and come up with the same answer as opposed to the idea that there is only one way to problem solve. It also includes taking knowledge and materials and using those known concepts in a variety of ways.

One of the talents (or someone could say skills) people really need is that comfort to be creative. From what I see and read this is also one of the strengths of the North American educational system. We all know that for years many foreign countries have sent their brightest and best to our academic and research centers (colleges and universities) to learn the techniques and mindset that encourages experimentation, thinking outside the box, and developing new ideas- products and theories – being creative. Countries are moving toward the USA type of education yet we are trying to change what others are trying now to emulate.

As parents we all talk about how our children are so different, with strengths and weaknesses. So where does that come in to our desire to have cookie cutter students-everyone working at the same pace at the same time? I do not argue the point that there are some basics that students need for life skills. Some of that is tangible such as math facts and reading/writing however much of learning includes communication skills (oral and written), collaboration skills, and the confidence to be problem solvers. These last skills also involve self-awareness and awareness of others- observation skills and perseverance. We are denying our current younger students time to develop skills in our need to always be number one.

For some reason as a collective society in the United States we are focusing on the need for factual knowledge only; rather than the ability to be creative. Creativity in this mind means working in a variety of ways to solve a problem. It includes many tries or if you will playing with facts and materials and considering choices and observing and analyzing. This is how discoveries are made; each try leads to new discoveries, perseverance, and observations all leading toward solutions.

So why are we not allowing students and young children to experiment play and observe? Even our very young children must sit in chairs at tables and listen – everyone doing the same thing rather than experimenting first with the materials around them. From my personal experience I would first pass out materials and allow students to manipulate (play) before we got into a lesson. Children were most excited about what they noticed or discovered about those materials and sharing their discoveries before we then put them to common use.

Our children are being put into positions where there is no time to explore, play, discover or assimilate. We want them to run without first crawling, and walking, in life. We except perfection before experimentation.

Something to consider is a phrase I first heard from Sir Ken Robinson- Our children are being “educated out of creativity.”