Einstein quipped,
Creativity is intelligence having fun!
Let’s have fun with four ideas about creativity together!
1. Creative thought shifts throughout the development of a child.
it is easiest to see playful curiosity, exploration, and imagination in young children. Children’s natural curiosities lead them to creativity.
Young learners are adept at making new connections. Their brains are wired for it. They are learning about their world at a rapid pace due to their brain development. They don’t question if they are creative, they just naturally explore and make connections.
Until about Grade 4, when the gremlins of comparison come out to play, and children begin to wonder if “they can do it!” During this important phase of developing a sense of self within the context of others, children can begin to stifle their creativity to “be like everyone else.” While this is a natural progression, as parents and educators there is a lot we can do to preserve a child’s creative thinking.
Even in my own childhood, I remember the moment clearly, when a teacher asked with derision, “Why can’t you be creative like your sister?!” The sneer stained my heart and It has taken me intentional work to re-discover my own creative soul as an adult. Now, I am certain I am a creative and I long to spend more of life exploring creatively. You can follow some of my journey at my “Creativity” Pinterest board.
2. If our definition of creativity broadens, we realize every teacher and parent can nurture creativity.
I think sometimes our definition of creativity is about excellence in the arts.
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While participating in the arts can be a brilliant avenue of creative self-expression, it can just as easily be a focus on the discipline and the training, lacking in imagination or self-expression. Certainly, I experienced both in my study of classical piano. Undoubtedly, creative thought can be exercised much more broadly than just in the fine arts.
Sir Ken Robinson, in his widely watched animate, asserts that “Schools Kill Creativity.” Through this thesis, Robinson draws attention to systemic issues within education and asks questions that continue to be debated throughout our educational communities. His definition of creativity is
A process of having ideas with value.
In a subsequent brief video he answers briefly “Can creativity be taught?”
If our definition of creativity can broaden, we can begin to embed creative thinking into our lifestyles and nurture it in our homes and schools.
3. Thinking creatively leads to a belief that you can create your own life!
This week I watched a delightful home video of a child working through her feelings about homework. She was using artwork to identify the planets on two ends of the spectrum called “resistance” and “non-resistance” to doing homework.
Over the course of her reflective video she realized that “bad” feelings lived near the “resistance” planet and that good feelings were aligned with “non-resistance.” The dividing line between the two worlds was the “line of concentration.” Her vivid descriptions in the video demonstrate creative thought and even beyond. She was intentionally thinking about how she wanted to feel and what made her feel that way. She was creating her life!
4. True creativity seeks to reveal a sense of self to the world.
When we enter into the “flow” of creativity, we are connecting our truest selves to our work. The creative process blends our experiences and meaning-making with our productivity and generation. Creativity always seeks to reveal self to the world.
Even this blog, is an exercise in exploring ideas and creating fresh connections between my own experience, my research, and my practice as a mother and educator. It is an act of self-revelation.
If children are naturally creative, how can I nourish their sense of creativity this week? When do I feel most creative? What if…our most creative gift to the world is to nurture an unconditional love for a child?
A new kind of world will exist when children grow up believing, “I am creative!”
For the sake of the children,
Karine
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