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Nurturing creativity in children, Angela Abraham
Nurturing creativity in children
Angela Abraham suggest some examples
Children are born creatives; they make-believe everything from cooking to imaginary friends. As Einstein said, it is this creative ability that is intelligence; knowledge is something else. To progress in areas of academia there will always be knowledge to be acquired, yet it is those who retain their inborn creativity who will lead the way to innovations in their area of passion. Thus, it is critical that we educators keep this ability alive. Creativity bursts forward when children are having fun; it is inborn of a sense of wonder and play. Happy children learn best, happy adults teach better, both students and teachers enjoying better mental health. When we teach this way we achieve perhaps the most important social good of all, educators role-modelling healthy and robust relationships built on love and trust, enabling students to become well-functioning adults in their various life-roles.
It is wise to keep in mind what our species is, how we came to be what we are. Since the dawn of the human era, some twelve thousand years ago, we have changed little. We love to learn by storytelling, by music and art. We love to play and tell jokes. In every group there is a natural leader, and the same is true of children. In every group there will be a diversity of ability and interest as is healthy and needed for a community to thrive. A generation of gifted mathematicians who didn’t like hunting, farming or building homes would never have survived. In recognising this diversity we can begin to really understand that every child is a needed and valued member of our local and global community. Every child will be led by their passions and natural abilities toward a life of helping others and doing good things. Natural learning is what it has always been: “observe, imitate, practise, master”, and the same very simple approach is still the best one.
When we apply this approach to nurturing creativity, we see that the child needs more of an “observe and imitate”
phase than is currently given. Plagiarism is an inappropriate notion when educating children; it is an adult concept linked to ownership of rights and has no place in the classroom. Let the learning be full of wonderful rich examples in all mediums. In writing, teach the technical aspects in a different lesson and let the fun begin. Any parts of the inspiring material the children copy will enrich their experience of language; after all, we would not teach children a dance and then scold them for taking the same steps. This is how our species learns. When they are ready to practise and master their art they will naturally be original, keen to explore their own ideas and talents with confidence.
As the class moves from the imitate phase to practising, they will become more creative, adding their own parts and flourishing touches. Let our motto be “The sillier the better!”. When we educators relax with children, their learning takes on an organic form; the child and the learning interact to produce something unique. As they move forwards with their passion for creatively expressing themselves, children will pass through to mastery under their own steam and driven by their own interests. This form of teaching can take a little longer in the early stages, but the results are far better. Children believe in themselves as independent learners, are curiosity driven and ready to embark on whatever the purpose of their own lives might be. Let us see the child in pursuit of learning and not the other way around.
As alluded to above, the techniques of writing are thus taught in a separate lesson, although many skills can be picked up “organically” by some children. Punctuation and spelling abilities are unrelated to a child’s creative ability (and thus their intelligence). Indeed, often the most highly creative children find such skills the most challenging because they require slower thought. They feel somewhat like a racing car being forced to drive at a crawling pace. Indeed, for children who find writing difficult, allowing them to submit their work orally or in any non-written form is a huge advantage. Our species did not evolve depending on our ability to de-code symbols or write them, thus it should be little surprise that intelligence is not dependent on ability to read and write. For some children their reading and writing ability comes later; many very intelligent children have highly asynchronous brain development. Einstein himself was something of a late-bloomer, not talking until age four and not reading until about age nine. I have too often seen children who are challenged in the areas of spelling and writing mis-labelled as “low-ability.”
So let’s show our students that we love writing too, that we still create stories, dances, music and pictures just for fun! We can let them watch us write a story and let them join in the creation of the tale. We can do a daily silly dance. We can tell jokes we make up on the spot, no matter how “lame” they are, and laugh at ourselves. We can read them rich material of wonderful descriptions and not mind if they copy a bit. Let’s give children the ingredients for a successful and happy life. Let’s encourage them to take a chance on being creative – a skill they can use in whatever academic field awaits them. In the words of Plato: “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each”.
