Childhood is a time of imagination, and creativity. However, as time passes, many of us seem to lose the creative spark that we enjoyed as children. While our social and academic skills evolve with maturation, our ability to create seems to devolve. We lapse into a pattern of "I can't sing," "I can't dance," "I can't paint." Fill in your own blank. What is it you think you are unable to do? Why don't you think you can do it?

The answer is probably simple. At some point in your life, one or all of the following happened:

• You had a friend or family member tell you you aren't good at something.
• You had a teacher or mentor figure reinforce the notion that you can't do something.
• You had a teacher or other authority figure consistently model learned inability.
• You had a particularly emotional failure in trying to do something creative.

These outside pressures eventually taught you that you can't sing, dance, draw, paint, sculpt. write, etc. You learned helplessness in a given area of human expression, and those teaching you that helplessness were probably unaware of their own influence.

An Aside About Teaching Learned Inability

One of the tenets of a newer movement in education -- usually referred to as Project Approach, Reggio-Emilia Approach, or Child-Directed Learning -- is that every child is an author; every child is a musician; every child is an artist. My wife teaches with this philosophy, and one of her preschoolers might come up and say, "We need a guitar for our campfire," to which she would respond, "Okay, how can we make one?"

In the Project classroom, every child is a teacher as well as a learner. Everyone is an expert in something, but in too many classrooms of the past and present, children are constantly reminded of how much they are helpless and incapable. They grow to rely on Teacher for everything. It is in this time that they learn they are unable to draw, that they are unable to sing. Implicitly, Teacher may be teaching them to disable their creative spark.

Additionally, we educators occasionally model this form of learned helplessness. "Here's what a horse looks like," we might say to draw a representation on the board, followed by the quick disclaimer of, "I'm no artist." I don't know many teachers who would admit, in front of their children, "I can't do math," "I'm not a very good writer," but we'll disclaim our creative talents without a second thought.

Stuck In Another Century

This brings me to the next part of education's role in stifling creativity: our entire education structure is based on the needs and values of the Industrial Revolution. Our basic educational fundamentals have remained largely unchanged for over a century. We just keep covering it with new coats of paint, but the fact remains. Through most of the United States, teachers are trying to prepare children for a twenty-first century world through a nineteenth century curriculum hierarchy.

Fortunately, some new philosophies like Project Approach encourage children to exercise those creative skills that will help them succeed as unique and innovative individuals in the workplace rather than carbon copies of one another. The point is in learning how to independently find answers to questions and problems, how to uniquely and individually share and/or implement those findings, and how to work as a team to reach a common goal. The point is not in reciting rote information. Now, if only we could get proficiency tests to reflect similar progress…

Back On Point

The truth is that you are a creative person. You can sing. You can draw. You can paint. The problem is that you don't believe you can. Whether outside influences have convinced you or you have simply convinced yourself is immaterial. Your creativity is as integral a part of your being as your academic self. It's in there, but you might have to do some work digging it out. We'll save that task for another post.

Tags: education, creativity