Creativity in our children’s learning... let’s embrace it!

At the moment the big buzz word in education is creativity.

And creativity matters...

I genuinely believe all children are born creative.

My evidence comes from seeing my own children develop. And from teaching students over the years.

After reading a lot of research and talking to many doctors and professional educators, it’s clear each child has a unique, individual creativity that we should be allowing them to express themselves.

There are so many ways to express creativity for children through play. When developing education materials, manufacturers like us always look at different ways the materials actively engage the children’s imaginations. Are they learning through play or learning to play, we ask ourselves.

Children need to be engaged to be intrinsically motivated to learn. There are many learning styles we look at when developing education materials. As such, today’s school curriculum - in every corner of the globe - could apply the same sort of approach, connecting the different styles of learning: aural, verbal, physical, logical, social solitary. Different Learning Style, diagram from instagram from @edxeducation

Sir Ken Robinson wrote a book called Finding Your Passion which looks at children’s creativity and how to unlock or even embrace it. He discusses children who have been referred to specialists to diagnose their so-called anti-social behavior.

One that always stands out recounts the example of a girl who was sent to a specialist because she couldn’t settle in class.

Let’s be honest how many children do settle when they are not engaged or even interested in the learning materials,. However when she went to the specialist she wasn’t diagnosed as many expected; they found other ways to communicate and engage with her and through music she developed to learn through play or music.

In this story, our subject then went on to be a top dancer and choreographer. Often in this day and age we are quick to label children and not so quick to embrace their differences which can be creativity.

When we look at today’s curriculum we see the gap in the knowledge we need to teach our students. But now we need to review the experience we give to our children. Let’s find ways, means, tools and materials to cater for the learning styles; let’s lay to rest that one-size-fits-all. In short, let’s embrace creativity....

In the next post, we’ll look at examples and ways to embrace creativity. Sign up for more articles like this at www.edbuildingblocks.com

One of my favourite podcasts on 'The Source of Creativity' from TED Radio Hour, have a listen!