I read a post in Public School Insights, a blog written by Claus Von Zastrow for the Learning First Alliance, where he interviews noted researcher and author Ashley Merryman. She recently co-authored a Newsweek cover story titled "The Creativity Crisis." Merryman argues that there's a science to nurturing a creative mind and we're just not doing that in this country.
She cites the declining scores our children are producing on the TTCT (Torrance Test of Creative Thinking) in the last 20 years. The test measures curiosity, hypothetical thinking, imagination, emotional expressiveness, humor, boundary breaking, and more. She says those scores were on the rise from 1958 to 1990. She blames some of it on television watching and computer usage among our youngsters. "For every hour kids watch television, their participation in creative activity drops 10%" She informs that it's not like you have to have knowledge first and then you are creative in the use. Rather knowledge and creativity are constantly working together in a creative child's mind.
Merryman also says we have no national strategy to address this crisis but holds out hope. We do know how to reverse this trend. "Creativity training actually changes brain function. On the neurological level we can actually change how the brain responds." This combination of encouraging both knowledge acquisition and creativity has implications for every classroom teacher.
What are your thoughts about this "crisis"? We might even ask our students to read the Newsweek article and propose solutions or view the video presentations posted on TED that also address the issue of creativity and our schools. Better yet check out the many outstanding resources available on this topic at Teaching with Ted.
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