Following is the entry I submitted to “No Right Brain Left Behind,” a contest for ideas on how to incorporate creativity in education.  There were lots of good ideas.  Many, however, focused on contests, commerce, ethics or pet social goals.

My personal philosophy is that when people must be creative “on command,” they begin to feel like puppets.  I know it destroys the fun of creativity for me. Nor do I need a contest in order to be creative.  In fact, the more I compare my ideas to others, for the sake of competition, the LESS likely I am to develop my own unique, creative ideas.  Instead, it becomes all about pleasing.  And the best creative endeavors, I feel, have to do with creating never-before-seen categories.  Take Apple and its products; was there ever an iPhone before there was an iPhone? And so many of their other products? If one is to focus on innovation, on newness, on creativity–one must give one’s wholehearted attention to the spectrum within. The one your competition hasn’t yet seen, nor can even conceive of.

If you are concerned about creativity, I urge you to visit the link below to a 2007 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.  It is chilling.  Bottom line: kids today are years behind kids of the 1940s.  They have no need to solve problems, have less free time, or time to simply run around playing make-believe.  Hence, they are not developing the thought processes we used to take for granted; thought processes that help us solve problems.  This all leads to a documented increase in anxiety and depression in college students.  In contrast to generations before, coping skills seem to weak or missing.

THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH YOUR DAUGHTER, MA’M.  SHE’S JUST A DANCER.

Excerpt: If we’ve educated schools out of creativity, then let’s begin with teachers and parents. (The kids know what to do.)  This is about addressing fears, providing tools and measuring not what kids make, but how the freedom to be creative increases their confidence, well-being and overall attitude toward challenges.

Submission:

Solution: Address fears.

Empower: Flexible tools for everyday use.

Nurture: Measure well-being, not artwork.

1.  Solutions for schools/institutions/government

Number one obstacle: Most adults outside of advertising have no idea what creativity is.  It’s intimidating.  Think of a neighbor picking out paint colors for the living room.  It’s agonizing.  They put undue pressure on themselves.  They have no concept of the process that could help: defining priorities, brainstorming, and experimenting before execution.  They skip over define, brainstorm and experiment, believing they have to rush to the decision-making part.  They think it’s supposed to be easy.  But it’s not.  They compare themselves to artists, as if they should have the same artistic judgment as a person with a lifetime of experience with color.  Upon realizing that they have no idea what they’re doing, they panic.  Creativity, to the average Joe, is an intimidating, uncomfortable thing.  A cause for suspicion, as they wonder what the secret is to “getting it right.”

Solution: Start with teachers and parents.  Explain what creativity IS.

What IS creativity, anyway?

Creativity is not the outcome.  It’s the process. Creativity is a habit.  A practice.  If you train for a marathon, you set yourself up for success on race day.  If you practice habits of creativity, you set yourself up for success with any problem.

Creative habits:

  • Stream-of-consciousness writing for one minute.
  • Replacing an ingredient with something you’ve never tried before in your favorite sandwich.
  • Improv acting warm-ups.
  • Speaking in an accent for one minute.
  • Filling a blank page each day, with words, sketches, or both.

Get the idea?

Obstacles to creativity:

  • Perfection.
  • Using the first idea that comes along.
  • Criticism.

Empower:

1. Educate teachers and parents on what creativity is and isn’t.

2. Arm teachers and parents with a variety of activities they can offer kids that can be done short and  long-term.  Offer flexibility.  Encourage them to start with one-minute ideas once a week.  Work up to doing a one-minute idea everyday.  Then take on a bigger activity; something that lasts 30 minutes or an hour.  Offer bigger options for high achievers: day, week, or year-long activities.

3. Focus on PARTICIPATION, not on the outcome.  The outcome really doesn’t matter. Like in a marathon, at this point, we’re just thrilled they’re running.  Actual race time, whether they were faster than someone else; that’s beside the point.  Stay focused!  If they run the race, that’s huge!  If they practice a creative habit, that’s huge!  (Actually, it’s more that if adults LET kids practice creativity everyday; THAT’s the accomplishment.)

Nurture

The truth is that when kids have creative outlets, they feel better.  Confidence increases.  Well-being is an outcome of creative outlets.  Lack of creative outlets contributes to depression, stress and anxiety. So let’s do something radical.  Let’s drop the need for an “innovative” idea.  How about we just get out of kids’ way? Kids LOVE being creative!  They know they were born to make believe!  They know they were born to build stuff out of play-dough!  It’s adults who babysit kids with TV and video games.  It’s adults who hover over kids, not allowing them to play outdoors, unsupervised, the way kids used to play.  It’s adults who over-structure, demand, test and compare.

Creativity is NOT about comparisons.  Give kids the space to find their own ideas.  They don’t need toys.  They don’t need electronics.  They don’t need games.  Give a kid a tree in a yard, and he or she will make their own toys.  Actually, this is what kids USED to do.  The kids that grew up and started inventing all the new technology we have today.  Remember?

If schools, government or parents require measurement, measure how kids are feeling and performing right now.  Do they seem stressed? Happy? How about the so-called rise in Attention Deficit Disorder?  Ever thought they just needed time to explore? Hear their own thoughts?  Measure how kids are doing now, then measure how they’re doing after practicing simple creative habits (as above) for a few months or a year.  Measure confidence.  Measure well-being.  Measure reactions to a challenge. See what you get.

Sources (in addition to those provided by NLBLB):

1. “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron

2. “Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills” by Alix Spiegel for National Public Radio, Feb. 21, 2008

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

3. “The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds” by Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MSEd, Jan. 2007

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;119/1/182

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