The “Creativity Crisis”
There is a "creativity crisis" underfoot in the U.S. and education reformers are attempting to address the crisis by using the very same methods that created it in the first place. I contend, we need to be truly "creative" to address this "creativity crisis."
Its official, there is a "Creativity Crisis" in the U.S., reports Newsweek in an article by the same name. Sir Ken Robinson was among the first to provide (popularly understood) articulate arguments on how schools kill creativity. Now, there is a measure based on a test developed by Dr. Paul Torrance, not recently but way back in 1958. Systematic testing is showing that the "Creativity Quotient" of students in the U.S. is on the decline. Those most affected by this Kindergarten-Grade 6 kids. Why is creativity on a decline? Likely because children watch too much TV or play video games but also because schools do little to foster creativity.
The article is significantly focused data gathered from testing for creativity. I am not so drawn to the notion of measuring creativity. In fact, I am broken hearted by the idea that there is an attempt to breakdown creativity into clearly identified ways of thinking, that it is measured and an attempt is made to foster it, to teach it. As the article often references, creativity is natural, it is present in all of us. And to me, it sounds like schools are getting in the way of it. Now, they are going to try to teach it and while I agree that there are ways in which creativity can be fostered, I think its a tad too contrived when 5th graders are asked to consider solutions for cutting down outside noise in their classroom as a way for them to be creative. How about if instead, that question had come from the 5th graders themselves as a result of them feeling the consequences of that noise coming in, not in response to a request for such problems but because they were awake, alive, curious beings exploring the world and couldn't but help solve such problems.
This is the problem with our education isn't it? Even when we notice that it is gone awry, we attempt to solve its problems by using the same methods that created the problems in the first place. We have a creativity crisis you say? Ok then. Lets understand the neurological basis of creativity — like that's the complete way of understanding something like creativity, then lets teach to these neurological processes and test it. Lets contain, constrain, compartmentalize and measure.
To truly solve a problem, one cannot do so using the same methods that created the problem in the first place. I think the problem can be solved by being "creative" — aha! We need to step out of the box of education, the way we see it — as a process that can be defined, replicated and measured. A fundamental shift in perspective is the only thing that can lead to true creativity. Only deeply creative thinking about education can begin to address this "Creativity Crisis."
One way in which I like to consider education creatively is by seeing it as a process of nurturing the deepest most natural way of being within each person — education is about "bringing forth" that which lies within. Lets look within each person to see who they are and bring them out, to be their own greatest selves in the palpable context of their life.