Killing creativity

There are two easy routes to killing creativity in your children (if that’s what you want to do!)

Route One: say 'no' to everything they suggest, think about, play with and are curious about. Be sure to block initiative, stifle unacceptable behaviour and generate fear about the consequences of their actions. Worry them about their appearance, their status in other peoples eyes and what their attitudes and behaviour might say about you than it might say about them.

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Route Two: say 'yes' to everything they suggest, think about, play with and are curious about. Be sure they understand there are no such as boundaries of any sort, that all kinds of behaviour in any circumstances are completely acceptable. Encourage them to think that all their ideas are perfect and require no further modification from any other source at all. Offer free, unconditional, unending praise for any kind of behaviour and have an unending supply of house points for every time they do something you think is creative.

So, whether you are a teacher or a parent, if you actually want to help foster children’s creativity, there’s a middle road between these two extremes, one that gives children support and structure. But what is the best way to provide these?

The notion of developing, rather than killing, children's creativity has never been far off the political agenda in recent years; ever since the Russians beat the Americans in putting Sputnik into space, the educational establishment has been frequently jolted by politicians to come up with more and better methods to make sure our kids are more creative than the kids next door - so that we can have the edge on our rivals and make sure our economy delivers. The drive to creative nirvana is fuelled by the political expediency of economic growth, more jobs, more wealth, greater prosperity, (something clearly identified in the UK Department for Education and Skills' National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education Report All Our Futures, back in 1999). Its no wonder that parents and teachers frequently ask themselves "how can I get young Emily and Emil to be more creative? What can I do to - in the words of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority - to 'find it, promote it' - without then stifling it into the bargain?"

The answer, it seem to me, is that to enhance children's experiences of creativity is an uncomfortable place somewhere in between the extremes set out by the structural approach and the child centred approach - and that place is likely to be found if we understand what the nature of the creative process is all about: something else which is frequently perceived as one of two extremes.

For some, the creative process is either the result of an unrestrained process of self expression and the unending generation of artefacts, all of which have equal merit and value and are generally deemed 'artistic' ("Look at this fantastic picture by little Emily - only 3 and she's painting like a Surrealist master!").On the other hand, it is the result of a self-punishing process in which an individual is caught up in an almost permanent psychotic episode of self-criticism and self-loathing, out of which is wrought their 'masterpiece' ("Look at this fantastic picture by young Emil - only 23 and he's become a Surrealist master!").

The process is more complex than either of these two positions suggests and steps can be taken to ensure that a child stands the best chance of undertaking and completing their journey. For playing a part in your child becoming 'more creative' is not something tangible like letting their hair grow longer or helping them revise for an exam: it's about offering time and space to understand and experience the processes involved - which need personal qualities of application, struggle and testing alongside the social qualities of co-operation, collaboration and mutual criticism.

In the Child of Our Time, Killing Creativity, we adapted the work of Norman Jackson and the Imaginative Curriculum Network to look for the creative attributes of the children being filmed. These included:

• their behaviours (how they used their imagination, whether they were willing to take risks, be courageous, subversive or curious and inquisitive);
• their ways of thinking (whether they could be open to new ways of thinking, could offer moments of critical thinking and could make new problems as well as solving pre-prepared ones) and
• their approaches to the situation they were faced with (whether they could own the experience, demonstrated a sense of what the American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly called 'flow', and were willing to be out of their comfort zone).

Our understandings about Creative Process have been introduced to many schools in recent years by organisations such as Creative Partnerships through Anna Cutler’s work on the Stepped Progression model of creative learning. This model has four phases which suggest what we might look for when it comes to encouraging our children’s creativity and approaches to learning.

These phases are simply called Input, Doing, Showing and Reflecting. She lists some key abilities needed for creative learning: the ability to identify or to make problems, the ability to think divergently (opening the mind to new, surprising, unusual and perhaps uncomfortable ideas), being open to experiences of fascination and curiosity, the ability to take risks, to play with and to suggest. All of these need to be expressed in a climate marked by an absence of fear and in which they find the pleasure in their endeavours for their own sake as opposed to an anxious educational agenda which might be hovering over their shoulders.

A further feature of creative learning - the ability to co-learn - is one that we stress in the television programme. Creativity is not just a product of individuals working alone - it is a shared, constructed and collaborative experience. It makes more sense to talk of 'our' creativity than 'my' or 'your' creativity for instance: so when it comes to our own thoughts about how we make our own children more creative, and how to prevent their creativity being killed off, then starting with ourselves - and how we are creative with our children - is an excellent place to start.