I was reading a blog today http://people.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/arted/tc.html#top
I found this piece by Marvin Bartel and wanted to share.
Teaching Creativity....
Text and photography © Marvin Bartel, Ed.D.
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The above illustration is typical of a kindergarten child's uninhibited
pre schematic drawing of herself. Most five year olds are totally
confident that they can draw, sing, and dance. Tragically, within
three or four years this child, if she is typical, will experience a
crisis
of confidence. She will no longer feel competent or
creative.
As teachers, we are often partly to blame for the diminished
inclination
to be creative as children become socialized and more
intelligent.
WHY CARE ABOUT IT
I write this as an art teacher for other art teachers. It is
the hardest, but most important piece to write. It easily turns into a
book-length piece. There are so many things to consider. Yet I want to
keep it as brief and consice as I possible. I believe so much the world
needs more and more compassionate creativity to solve the many very
difficult problems confronting us. Creative people do not have answers,
but they habitually wonder. They habitually ask better questions. They
have optimism. When combined with empathy and compassion, creativity is
bound to be a force for good.
Teaching creativity to everyone is vitally important. If
teachers persist in using methods that deny creativity, the brains of
the learners are conditioned in the direction of accepting traditional
assumnptions and content without the means to question and test for
validity and reliablity in today's world. There will always be a
creative few who can resist the drill and kill educational methods. But,
tragically, when only a few are creative, the balance of power becomes
distorted. The majority become impressionalble slaves who can be
convinced that their role is serve the creatively inspired experts. When
this minority realizes how powerful they are, it can go to their heads.
They can too easily take unfair advantage. The results include
corruption, misuse of power, prejudice, scarcity, and many other
uinimaginable problems.
It just happens that However,
I think teachers in every area need to reflect on what they are doing
that
tends to foster or hinder the creative critical thinking that is so
essential
as a survival and success skill in today's world. Creative
readers,
whatever they teach, will recognize their own lessons and projects in
this article. In the development of cognition, the
ability
to imagine is among the most advanced of all human traits. Why would
any
teacher want to ignore or even squelch the imagination.
