Are children encouraged enough to be creative?

My worst educational experience was summer camp. I was 11 (and very homesick). The camp was split into groups for a competition.

We were given paper, glue and the like to make a contraption to throw an egg off a bridge, to try and have it land without being damaged. A classic camp activity.

I came up with a plan. Instead of making a makeshift failure of a parachute like the others, why not use our allocation to create a zip-wire contraption, thereby allowing our celebrated egg to sail safely along the string in a basket to safety? Brilliant!

We watched group after group smash their egg off the bridge with their makeshift parachutes. Then it was our turn. I watched the judges’ faces as we calmly strode up to the bridge, connected our string and stood back confidently as our egg made its majestic way to the ground. Then came the silence.

No applause, just silence. I seem to recall that we were disqualified. They claimed we hadn’t done things the way they envisaged. But wasn’t that the point? We managed to achieve the goal without needing to “do it the way they envisaged”!

What are your standout memories from school? Some will be social, others will often be something you really worked hard for. Occasionally you may remember a classroom lesson too. Your child’s memories will be similar.

If the goal of education is setting up our children for later life, are we making sure we teach some of the underlying processes our children will need in later life? Creativity is a classic one. It’s needed for problem-solving, it’s needed for facing difficult life situations.

Ronald Beghetto, an expert on creativity, wrote: “Encouraging creative thinking while learning not only enlivens what is learned but can also deepen student understanding.”

Do we focus on cultivating creativity enough?

According to the Robinson Report (2000), at age eight, a child’s potential for creativity is 98 per cent, but by adulthood that potential has dropped to 2 per cent.

 Long gone are the days of didactic Victorian school methods, which made left-handed pupils use their right. Gone are the blackboards and chalk. In are the smart boards and chromebooks.

Schools, while essentially being non-democratic bodies of order, structure and pattern, have become much warmer, far more individualistic and broader in their teaching. Some subjects are essentially creative-focused, especially the arts. But in legislating for creativity in some subjects are we at risk of underestimating the importance of teaching creativity in general? Elements of maths or English literature  necessitate creativity. But too much exam-centric teaching can risk focusing on subject over skill and not fully tap into the underlying life qualities a subject can bring out.

Some may think that creativity is form of chaotic havoc, maverick out-the-box attitude to life. It’s not. Sensible creativity involves knowing exactly where the lines are, where there is room for interpretation, where there is room to challenge assumptions and do things differently.

When students are taught Gemara at a good level, this notion is being constantly asserted; know the rules and boundaries but come up with a way to put the pieces together in a loyal yet sometimes novel way.

The educationists Steven Tepper and George Kuh (2011) assert: “Creativity is cultivated through rigorous training and by deliberately practising certain core abilities and skills over an extended period of time.” We need to make sure we continue to cultivate such positive creativity across the board.

​Rabbi Fine is education director of Seed