This is what I’d like to say to all parents who plan for
their children to be doctors and engineers, and want them to excel
mathematically, but don’t realize the importance of creativity in their child’s
life:
I went into teaching art because I believe that creativity
is really important. I believe it is as
important as literacy and should be treated with the same respect.
Ken Robinson, a leading expert in Creativity, reminds us
that children starting kindergarten this year will graduate high school in
2025, and we have no idea what 2025 will look like. Essentially, we’re educating children for a
future that we may never see and cannot predict.
Think about how much the world has changed since you were a
kid. Well, innovation hasn’t exactly
slowed down since then either. In fact,
innovation is as important as ever.
Jonah Lehrer, another leading expert in Creativity, and the author of
the bestseller book, Imagine, defines
creativity as taking two things that existed before and connecting them in an
entirely new way. That’s what innovation
and engineering is. You may have been
told that math and science does not coincide with the arts, but someone lied to
you. It all coincides because creativity
is all about the process of imagining what didn’t exist previously and that
term is not strictly adhered to the arts.
Ken Robinson also says, “if a person is not prepared to be
wrong, they’ll never do anything great”.
That is profound in that a person cannot look at something that doesn’t
work and not want to fix it. We were
born to be creative and if we don’t nurture children’s creativity, we’ll
educate it right out of them. The world
does not need another Albert Einstein, we already have E-mc^2…we need someone
new.
You may have noticed that more people are getting college
degrees than ever before. It’s no secret that jobs that once required a Bachelor’s
Degree now require a Master’s. And jobs
that once required a Master’s Degree require a doctorate. It’s a process of academic inflation. Pretty soon, it won’t just matter how much
academic ability one has, it’ll also equally depend on performance. Our children will have to show product before
he or she enters their desired field. Employers
will want to know, does this person have product to prove their skills? A degree may get an interview scheduled, but
it’ll be the portfolio that lands a job.
All day long, children have to show product at school; I
would like to argue, that more of the time, the things that should be most
valued in your child’s day is what is product of his or her imagination. If there were only one thing for certain in
education, it would be that when school and home are teaching the same valuable
lesson to kids, learning is greatly more visible. So, here are skills that will help your child
be people who can produce product. It’d
be worth trying to get your child’s teachers on board, if they aren’t already.
While you are with your child, assess how much of your
child’s activities encompass a playful attitude? Does your child have adequate time to be
silly? Are you silly with your
child? Do you joke? Do you laugh at your mistakes? Do you take risks? Are you prepared to be wrong? 15 minutes a day to be silly with your kid
and model these skills (yes, skills) will make all the difference in your
child’s education. These skills prepare
a child to take risks, without the fear of failure before he or she even
commences, a necessary component of being a creative person.
Do you value your child’s interests? A parent once asked me, “How can I make my
child enjoy playing the piano?” Well, it’s
pretty hard to make a person like
anything. We can expose kids to the
things that we are interested in and/or think is important for their lives, but
heart goes a long way. This is not to
say that parents shouldn’t enforce things that children don’t like, just make
sure that their voice is heard and that it matters. This will look different in every house.
How about confidence?
Does your child possess it? One
of the best ways to help your child in this area is to ask your child, “what do
you think?” Being a confident person
means having the strength to think for one’s self. “Mom, should I brush my teeth, now?” Respond with, “What do you think?” The answer, may of course be yes, but give
your child the chance to think for themselves rather than relying on you to
make all judgment calls. In creativity,
it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.
And now, here is the most important question that I have. How much down time does your child have? You see, every creative journey begins with a
problem. Frustration is an important
part of the creative process. But, no
one ever talks about that part. People
tend to say things, like “creativity comes easy to others; I’m just not a
creative person.” Have you ever thought
like that? If you have, then I have news
for you; it’s not that you aren’t naturally creative, it’s that you gave up
when it got too hard, or you didn’t have the time and energy to work it out. Essentially, for whatever reason, you didn’t
wrestle long enough with the problem, in order to find a creative solution.
Problem solving can wear a person down. That’s when it’s best to take a break. So after a long day of school or on the
weekends, what is it that you still expect of your child? It could be that after a day or week of
utilizing his or her imagination to it’s fullest, rest and play is just what is
needed. Rest and play rejuvenates the
creative spirit, often leading to the ah-ha moments. You know, that moment when the light bulb
goes on, and when all the information comes together and you curse yourself for
not realizing sooner?
The hardest part about helping your child with this, is
giving him or her adequate rest, but also not letting him or her give up, and
making sure that your child has appropriate roles and responsibilities around
the house at the same time. The best thing that you can
do, is recognize your child’s stress, help your child cope, and then eventually
come back to the problem that needs to be solved--whether it deserves a creative solution or not. It takes
balance and it’s no easy feat…so, good luck!
With all of that being said, I wish that all parents could find time
to work together with their child’s teacher to be their child’s cheerleader for furthering his or her creative spirit. It'd be worth it.
It is what it is.
