There are people who say that creativity is a trait only a selected few are born with, that it isn’t something taught because, like physical beauty, it is a gift or a privilege. Therefore these people conclude that creativity is not something that can be taught.
So, can creativity be taught? What do you think?
There are, however, other schools of thought as far as this matter is concerned and many who now believe that creativity is after all an ability that can be cultivated and even taught. This particular line of thinking has actually taken root more recently especially as the world advances and we begin to see people develop their creative faculties and excel only later in life, when they hadn’t even shown any tinge of creativity at all in their earlier days.
Some proponents of the idea that creativity is something that can be taught and learned assert that a person’s environment, orientation and background are ultimately responsible for diminishing or enhancing one’s creativity.
Okay, so now what do you think? Can creativity be taught after all?
On the other hand, fans of the conservative idea that creativity is innate say that such factors like orientation and environment are merely tools to enhance creativity and that their presence would amount to nothing if there is no creativity to hone in the first place.
And those individuals that only showed creativity later in life did so at that time and not any earlier because they hadn’t bothered to develop the skill they had indeed been born with but ignored for much of their life.
This issue has long been a topic of debate among many scientific and social experts all over the world. Some people say perhaps the differences lie in the fact that creativity is too general of a concept. That in reality it actually encompasses a variety of ideas and occurrences that people have varying definitions for. What may be an indication of creativity for one may not be so for another person at all.
And there are even those who say that creativity is a factor of imagination and innovation. According to this line of thinking, if creativity is a component of innovation, then perhaps it is something that can be learned by all and therefore taught to everyone in schools and even at home.
Once again, what’s your thinking on the subject now? Can creativity be taught?
Here is yet another point for us to ponder. One line of thinking believes that when we were born, while we may have been given certain interests, talents and abilities, none of these would have been of any use to us had we not been taught how to use them properly.
Therefore, while we may have been born with certain traits that would make us creative, they would be for naught if no form of education or teaching had allowed us to discover our creativity and put it to good use.
Upon birth, neither our parents or ourselves were aware of what the future held for us or what our own individual talents and abilities through life might be. And because of this lack of knowledge about future occurrences, all our parents and schools could do was teach us to be resilient and how to think for ourselves. And if we were truly lucky this is the type of education we received.
The purpose of this type of education is to allow each of us to be able to make our own unique decisions about these talents and abilities residing within us waiting for the right moment to be put to use when the need arises. What we need to be taught then is how to be creative and innovative amid behavioral, technological and environment shifts and changes. That being said, yes, creativity can be taught after all.
Do you now agree? Can creativity be taught?
Today there is a trend of using standardized tests to determine a person’s creativity which is not only inaccurate, but actually very limiting and stifling as far as true creativity is concerned. This is because nobody can really measure how creative a person can or will be.
This talent of creativity is a faculty that only surfaces when particular situations come up that allow it to be cultivated and nourished. And because these type of incidents don’t happen to everyone or even at the same time, creativity is difficult if not impossible to measure. So, given this, who is to say who is creative and who is not?
The argument as to whether creativity can or can’t be taught is one that will most likely continue for quite sometime. For some, education has worked. For others, education is seen as merely a tool.
But isn’t it nice to know that being of the human race we do have the ability to engage in such debates and to even change our mind about what we think as new information comes to light over time.
So, have you made up your mind for yourself yet? Can creativity be taught?