Award-winning author, Sibert Medal winner, and creativity expert Catherine Thimmesh joins the podcast to dispel common myths about what creativity is and isn’t, and discuss how parents and teachers alike can encourage and foster our students’ creative thinking.
Every child is creative. They’re constantly coming up with wild, bizarre, hilarious, and beautiful connections that seem to pour out of them naturally. As they grow though, there’s a notion that if they aren't following an overtly creative endeavor — like painting or writing — then their creativity begins to wane.
Not only is this unfortunate; it’s entirely untrue. The truth is, we all need to find new connections and ideas to improve any pursuit, from music to computer science.
Everyone is creative. And our guest Catherine Thimmesh is here to explain why that creativity is muffled for some and how we can empower our children to stay creative for life.
Why Teaching Creativity Is So Critical
When you walk into a kindergarten classroom and ask the students if they think they’re creative, 100% of them will say that they are. By fifth grade, it’s down to approximately 50%. By ninth grade — 10%.
Out of that 10% who still consider themselves creatives, they almost always identify as an artist or someone involved with a stereotypically creative field.
Creativity and the arts are not one in the same, Catherine says. We need to dispel that myth. Anyone can be creative, no matter the field of interest that they pursue.
Preparing for an Unknown Future with a Flexible Mindset
When there’s no way to predict the future, it makes it difficult to train future problem solvers for any likely scenario. Instead, a focus on creativity can help foster a flexible mindset — something valuable to any future.
“Everyone needs to draw on creativity skills,” Catherine says. “Meaning, connecting new ideas and thoughts, and repeatedly approaching problems from a new and different perspective.” This leads to innovation.
Think about someone who works on a computer all day. They might not think of themselves as very creative, but that doesn’t mean they’re not connecting new ideas or approaching problems from a different perspective.
How to Teach & Train Creativity
Why do people outside of traditionally creative fields lose their creativity? It comes down to a few things: the rigidness of some fields, the educational and cultural standardizing we all go through.
But the good news is: It can be reversed. We can still encourage our students to pursue whatever path they want, but emphasize the need to be creative in whatever they do.
“In an ideal world, we want a daily practice of creativity,” Catherine says. “But that can be 60 seconds a day.”
Creativity prompts can work within the structures that we as teachers and parents already have.
Short Creativity Prompts
Creativity is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. And whether you’re working that muscle for an hour a day or 5 minutes a day, every bit helps.
As a school teacher, there’s rarely enough time to fit in everything that needs to be done in a day, let alone an infusion of creativity. Catherine’s advice: Keep prompts simple and quick to avoid disruption elsewhere.
For example, as students enter the classroom, ask them to approach their desk and sit down in a different way than they usually do. If a student normally just walks up to the desk and sits down, have them walk around the perimeter before sitting down this time. Or encourage them to come up with another pathway.
As long as you’re getting that student to recognize another way to achieve a goal, you’re building that flexible mindset.
“It might sound inconsequential and silly, but a little bit silly is good,” Catherine says. “It starts getting your mindset rolling on ‘is there another way to approach something?’”
Here are some other fun, fast and free creative prompts to try with your student:
- Have them brush their teeth with a different hand.
- Ask them to sit in a different position than in their chair. Maybe it’s on top of the desk, or under the desk.
- Give them a piece of paper with 30 circles on it and ask them to turn those shapes into something.
- Have them stare out the window for 5 minutes with no devices or distractions.
- Find more in Catherine’s TEDx Talk.
Why Best Practices and Better Practices Can Coexist
Some professions strive to create best practices, leaving little room to explore different approaches – or so it seems. Are there downsides to training students toward an open-ended reality when there are fields that have clear-cut best practices?
Catherine breaks down this concern into two parts:
- The question presupposes that we’d only be teaching creative problem solving – which isn’t true. Teaching creativity would exist collaboratively and side by side to other studies.
- Best practices change: Even though something has been done the same way for 50 years, it doesn’t mean there's no room for innovation. If there are best practices, follow them. But if you have a better way, let’s try that too.
A Flexible Mindset
Everyone is creative. While some may follow paths that feel less creative than others, all students should work to build a flexible mindset.
For teachers and parents who don’t have enough time as it is, infusing creativity can be as easy as an extra five minutes of students approaching a daily routine from a different perspective.
We need to embolden our students with the creativity they may have lost along the way – so that they’ll be ready for any future scenario that comes their way.
Guest Links
Creativity in the Classroom (in 5 minutes or less!) (TEDx Talk)
Recommended Resources
Check out these additional resources, from Catherine Thimmesh:
- EncouragePlay - Creative Problem Solving Activities for Kids
- Odyssey of the Mind
- PBS Kids for Parents - Creative Problem Solving
- Destination Imagination - K12 STEAM Competition
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This episode was brought to you by Art of Problem Solving, where students train to become the great problem solvers of tomorrow.
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