edCircuit Opinion:
There is one skill that every institution looks for when recruiting individuals: creative thinking. Whether it be the education sector, business sector, or even the medical field, more and more as a society we appreciate the workings of a creative mind. If you’re asking yourself, how do I know if my child is a creative thinker? The Conversation has the answer. If your child uses their imagination, utilizes their storytelling skills or expresses quality emotions, then they exhibit creative thinking skills. For parents who have not seen these qualities in their children, fear not. Creativity is not a rare quality that is simply bestowed upon select individuals. Instead, it is a honed skill that can be learned. Allowing children to work creatively has immediate benefits as well. For instance, research has shown that creating art can improve young children’s abilities to analyze and problem-solve. Do you agree with these articles emphasize the importance of creative thinking? If so, what are ways that we can incorporate these skills into the classrooms and homes of children?
At a Glance:
- Creativity is not a rare quality bestowed upon select individuals. Instead, it is a honed skill
- Research shows that the amount and quality of imagination, story-telling skills and emotion expression that children show in pretend play is associated with creative thinking abilities
- Creating art may boost young children’s ability to analyze and problem-solve
Around the Web:
Getting Down to the Business of Creativity
Julia Hanna | Harvard Business School
Creativity, a quality more traditionally associated with artistic endeavors, has been slow to find its acknowledged place in the business world. Any entrepreneur can attest to the creative power required to build an organization where none existed before. “Look, I made a hat…/Where there never was a hat,” sings Georges Seurat in the musical Sunday in the Park with George, a fictionalized account of the French pointillist painter, and it’s easy to imagine Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey humming the same tune.
But if creativity is integral to business, and to entrepreneurship in particular, how exactly does it occur? Where does this unicorn-like creature come from, and what exotic conditions will help it thrive in captivity?
Three professors in Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Management Unit who focus on the study of creativity recognize the romantic allure of believing it’s a rare quality bestowed on a chosen few, but all agree that notion has been debunked long ago, and rightfully so.
To read more visit Harvard Business School
Help your children play out a story and watch them become more creative
Sandra Russ | The Conversation
Just about every institution these days is looking for creative individuals. Adults who can innovate in high-quality ways and contribute to the progress of science, engineering, and the arts.
Creative expressions start from an early age. Children express creativity through “pretend play” – an activity that involves using imagination and make-believe. They make up stories and ideas “from scratch” and use props like blocks or sticks to represent different ideas and objects – for example, a block becomes a telephone or monster.
The question is, does playing in such a way help children become more creative? And importantly, can parents and educators use play to boost creativity?
To read more visit The Conversation
Why Art and Creativity Are Important
Paula Bernstein | Parents Magazine
Your preschooler is having a blast finger-painting with a mix of colors. Trying to be encouraging, you ask her, “What are you making?” and she shrugs. Until you mentioned it, she hadn’t given it any thought. Little kids are masters of the moment — they love the way it feels when they smear paint on paper, how it looks when they sprinkle glitter, and even the soft sound a brush makes as it crosses the page, says Amy Yang, founder of Brooklyn Design Lab, an art school for children. Unlike older kids and adults, most toddlers and preschoolers aren’t self-conscious about what they’re doing or focused on creating a finished product. That can be hard for parents to accept, says Lisa Ecklund-Flores, co-founder and executive director of Church Street School for Music and Art, in New York City. But letting go — and allowing kids to enjoy the process of creation — can reap big rewards. “Children will be better off in the long run if they’re allowed just to be in the moment and express themselves,” she says.
Fostering creativity won’t just increase your child’s chances of becoming the next Picasso. You’re also helping him develop, mentally, socially, and emotionally, says Ecklund-Flores. Creating art may boost young children’s ability to analyze and problem-solve in myriad ways, according to Mary Ann F. Kohl, author of Primary Art: It’s the Process, Not the Product. As kids manipulate a paintbrush, their fine motor skills improve. By counting pieces and colors, they learn the basics of math. When children experiment with materials, they dabble in science. Most important perhaps, when kids feel good while they are creating, art helps boost self-confidence. And children who feel able to experiment and to make mistakes feel free to invent new ways of thinking, which extends well beyond the craft room.
To read more visit Parents Magazine