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The
most powerful way to develop creativity in your students is to be a role model.
Children develop creativity not when you tell them to, but when you show them.
Robert J. Sternberg in
How to develop student
creativity
How we discourage creativity
If intrinsic motivation is one key to a child's creativity, the crucial element
in cultivating it is time: open-ended time for the child to savor and explore a particular
activity or material to make it her own. Perhaps one of the greatest crimes adults commit
against a child's creativity is robbing the child of such time.
From Goleman, Kaufman and Ray (1992) The creative spirit, 63
Comments: It is perhaps ironic that within our culture we insist that we place such value on
creativity and then blatantly try to steal it away from children in the contexts of their
educational experiences and their upbringing. As a culture we need to finally decide what
we really want for our children and then carefully design and monitor experiences which
provide those things we value. Here Hennessy and Amabile (1992) identify common
"creativity killers." It is important to note that all of these
"killers" are commonplace in our schools and homes.
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Surveillance - Hovering over kids, making them feel that they're constantly being
watched while they are working, . . . under constant observation, the risk-taking,
creative urge goes underground and hides . . .
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Evaluation - When we constantly make kids worry about how they are doing, they
ignore satisfaction with their accomplishments. . . .
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Rewards - The excessive use of prizes . . . deprives a child of the intrinsic
pleasure of creative activity.
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Competition - Putting kids in a win-lose situation, where only one person can come
out on top, . . . negates the process children progress at their own rates.
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Over-control - Constantly telling kid how to do things, . . . often leaves children
feeling like their originality is a mistake and any exploration a waste of time.
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Restricting choice - Telling children which activities they should engage in
instead of letting them follow where their curiosity and passion lead . . . again
restricts active exploration and experimentation that might lead to creative discovery and
production.
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Pressure - Establishing grandiose expectations for a child's performance . . .
often ends up instilling aversion for a subject or activity. . . .Unreasonably high
expectations often pressure children to perform and conform within strictly prescribed
guidelines, and, again, deter experimentation, exploration, and innovation. Grandiose
expectations are often beyond children's developmental capabilities.
Summarized from: Goleman, Kaufman and Ray (1992)
The creative spirit, 61-62
Think about it:
Children's lives, just like those of adults, should be compartmentalized. And yes,
children need to be taught to regulate their behavior according to situational and social
needs. But there should be some sense of balance between the times when children have time
for creative exploration, experimentation, and innovation, and the times where choices are
restricted, where direct instruction is given, and where children are required to obey
rules and conform to social norms. Unfortunately, what happens is that there is usually a
lack of balance and life becomes an all or nothing proposition. Thus, many children go
through childhood learning only about competition, rules, control, and conformity, and
little about the joy of exploration, innovation, and discovery as these elements pertain
to acts of creation.
One of the things that research reveals (Piirto) on the upbringing of highly creative
individuals, is that these people usually came from homes that had
only a few, important,
sacred rules.
After reading the list of "creativity killers" above, examine your own
practices as either a teacher or a parent and see how many "killers" are
regularly part of your teaching or parenting. Then see if you can alter your practices so
that your children or students have opportunities to develop their senses of creativity
more fully, in other words, try to limit or eradicate your " creativity
killers.".
Potent stories about killing creativity in
children appear from a number of sources:
- Harry Chapin's poignant song
Flowers are
red
- Children's author Tomie de Paola's book
The
art lesson
- Helen E. Buckley's classic poem
The
Little Boy appears on many sites. Here are some links -
Version 1;
Version
2;
Version
3.
All of these speak of similar tales telling about how
teachers, concerned more with obedience and conformity, steal children's creative
spirits. While civility and appropriate social behavior are important in our
very interpersonal, collaborative, and cooperative world, as adults we need to find
a balance between our need for order and in helping maintain creativity in
children.
Sources:
Amabile, T.M., & Hennessey, B.A. (1992). The motivation for creativity in
children. In T. Pittman & A. Boggiano (Eds.), Achievement and
motivation: A social developmental perspective
(pp. 54-74). New York:
Cambridge University Press
Hennessey, Beth A., and T. M. Amabile. (1987)
Creativity and Learning. Washington, D.C.: National Education
Association, 1987.
Goleman D., Kaufman P., and Ray M. (1992)
The creative spirit. New York: Penguin.
Piirto, J. (1992)
Understanding those who
create, 1st ed. Dayton, Ohio. Ohio Psychology Press.
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