The Creativity Crisis
The title alone gives much insight into what this article is about. The fact that children are not as creative as they have been in the past is sad. The article in Newsweek gives some answer to why children are not as creative as they once were. The T.V, video games, the lack of creativity development in our schools, all play a role in our creativity crisis. Everyone, myself included, is so worried about rules, boundaries, doing things the way we think it should be done, that we are enabling ourselves and those around us.
I found it extremely interesting when the article was talking about environments where children were more creative. For example, when kids have to deal with hardship, they learn to be more flexible and creative in how they handle situations. The article went on to say that hardship doesn’t necessarily equal a creative person, but it does bring out a person’s ability to be creative in certain situations. Also, kids who have parents that encourage them to be unique and creative but also provide a stable, safe environment tend to be more creative. As someone who can’t wait to have children, I always think about the kind of parent that I want to be. This article really made me think about the type of parent that I want to be and I want to give my kids a chance to be creative.
The article also talked about early childhood kiddos and how they are creative. I think, as a second grade teacher, I can foster students’ creativity by offering more opportunities for students to solve problems, role play, put themselves in different situations or perspectives. I do NOT consider myself a creative person, so sometimes I tend to think that everyone (my students included) like rules and regulations and boundaries just like I do. I do not want to be any part of this creativity crisis, and stifle my students and what they are passionate about.
I laughed are your comment on how you do NOT consider yourself a creative person. I only laughed because I feel the same way. But thinking about it today I realized that this needs to change. You are right we don’t want to be a part of the ‘creativity crisis.’ One way to get away from the crisis is to realize we are creative beings. To be a good teacher we have to have some creative juices flowing. Being able to take a concept and teach it five different ways to make sure everyone gets it is not an easy task. Also I know in kindergarten that the curriculum expects you to teach each thing the same exact way you did the day and week before, that gets boring. I myself have a plethora of ideas that I use to teach what I am suppose to be but in different ways to keep the kids engaged. My point in this is that we are creative and need to realize that. If we don’t then how are we going to see the creativity in our students? Each of them needs to value the concept of being creative, and can hopefully find at least one area they feel a creativity strength. As a teacher it is our job to lead them down this path, encouraging them to make mistakes and try different avenues. They will however only take us seriously about this if they see the creativity in us.
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