Fostering the Creative Capacity

My experience in the classroom has been in the early childhood education sector. Although this is different from public school education, I am familiar with using a controlled lesson plan in the classroom. HighReach Learning Curriculum was the first curriculum I worked with in as a teacher. It was a step-by-step teaching outline that forced educators to teach the same material to all children no matter what their learning level. The activities were meant to be fun and engaging. However, most of us teachers found the activities to be boring and not at all age-appropriate. 

In his video, Do Schools Kill Creativity, speaker Sir Ken Robinson discusses the impact of student creativity and self-discovery in schools. He explains how teachers tend to educate students out of their creative capacities. Creative capacities are the children’s ability to self-discover what makes sense to them. He states, “if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’re not prepared to be original” (2006). This is the essence of creativity. 

When I served as a pre-kindergarten teacher at the Goddard School, I was introduced to the FLEX curriculum. It’s objective was learning through play. Here, I was able to create fun learning experiences for my students with the ability to differentiate as needed. I was able to meet the individual needs of my students by administering my assessment, then modifying my lesson plans to the developmental level each child. It was a fantastic experience no matter what the topic, I had complete control over the activities for my classroom. I was able to foster my students’ creativity in subjects like art, social sciences, and language. 

Robinson explains that the education system was invented in the 19th century to meet the needs of industrialism. He states, “all education systems have the same hierarchy of subjects... [and] the objective of most public school is preparation for college” (2006). Because of this,  schools tend to become more standardized, diminishing student creativity. It is important to nurture the creativity in our students. I believe teachers should consistently work to identify students creative abilities. Robinson states, “identify creative capacity for its value and nourish it in our children to make them hopeful” (2006). It is this hope that will carry them throughout their academic career. If students are allowed to be creative and discover what makes sense to them, it can fuel their eagerness for knowledge and learning for years to come.