Inside the Box: People don’t actually like creativity.
In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be an asset, even a virtue. Online job boards burst with ads recruiting “idea people” and “out of the box” thinkers. We are taught that our own creativity will be celebrated as well, and that if we have good ideas, we will succeed.
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Unfortunately, the place where our first creative ideas go to die is the place that should be most open to them—school. Studies show that teachers overwhelmingly discriminate against creative students, favoring their satisfier classmates who more readily follow directions and do what they’re told.
Even if children are lucky enough to have a teacher receptive to their ideas, standardized testing and other programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top (a program whose very designation is opposed to nonlinear creative thinking) make sure children’s minds are not on the “wrong” path, even though adults’ accomplishments are linked far more strongly to their creativity than their IQ. It’s ironic that even as children are taught the accomplishments of the world’s most innovative minds, their own creativity is being squelched.
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I am going to use this in my work. I am a former advertising creative person turned college professor.
I rarely find creativity in my students. When I do find it, I feel like doing the happy dance. It is so rare that I can go for years without seeing a creative student.
My techniques are creative and classes don't like it. They want the same-old same-old so they know what to expect. All they can do is by rote. Read the book, answer the questions.
Don't ask them to demonstrate a technique or show they can do something as a result of this learning. They can't.
For years I would get these comments on my teaching evals that said they thought the course was disorganized. When I approached my department head for help, he looked at my organization practices and found nothing amiss.
We eventually figured out that what the students were saying was they did not know what to expect at each class (the way the class was "organized"
. So now I give them the same-old same-old. They eat it up. Everybody's happy (except me--that I can't use my creative ideas).
Yep, it's sad. I wonder what we're going to do for creative people in the future. Thank dog for immigrants.
And as for me, I'm trying to find teaching opportunities with the gifted. That is one place where creativity is valued.
Cher
