Creative Genius: It Takes Both Sides

What is Creativity? Creativity is about problem solving in a new way. It is using skills to generate ideas and bring about something unique and valuable. Although the creative process involves imagination and self expression, it must be purposeful in reaching “outside the box” to solve a problem, meet a need, or accomplish a goal.

Although some children are innately more creatively inclined, all kids can learn creative thinking skills and get in the habit of using them for problem solving in life, work, and play.

Divergent And Convergent Thinking

We often hear the terms “right brain” and “left brain” thinking. This refers to the two hemispheres of the brain, each of which dominate different thought processes. In reality, both hemispheres need to work together for us to do anything meaningful.

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Creative Connections

Creative thinkers play with metaphors and analogies. This means that they look at one thing as if it were another thing. They ask, “What else could this be like?” They make new connections between unrelated things. 

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Brainstorming: A Climate for Creative Growth

Try this the next time you have a rainy day and your child or classroom has free time. You can turn a rainy day into an amazing brainstorm!

Brainstorming is a technique for generating a free-flow of ideas to solve a problem within a short period of time. Brainstorming can be practiced by individuals or by a guided group of two or more.

Groups need a facilitator, whose role is to encourage participation, to embrace and record each idea, and to remind participants to defer judgment, however wild an idea may seem. 

Although brainstorming in a group may not always produce the best ideas, the sessions offer other valuable benefits. They boost confidence, warm up creative muscles, improve classroom spirit, and create a trusting social climate. Creative thought flourishes in positive psychological environments.

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Who Are The Creative Kids?

As the mom of two incredible kids, one special needs and one who was identified as “gifted,” and as a former teacher, I know that creative genius can arise out of any child anywhere. You cannot predict it by looking at typical classroom performance. My special needs daughter astonishes me with her ideas and handmade folk dolls as much as my gifted son does with his writing and acting abilities.

Many kids assumed to be “attention deficit” look like they're daydreaming, and maybe they are—in a good way! Your daydreamer could be laying the early foundations of a groundbreaking innovation he'll someday bring to fruition.

Dreamers’ Lib

The word, “daydream,” has negative connotations, such as apathetic, slow, and unmotivated. But the truth is almost always the opposite.

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Imagination Knows No Bounds

I recently provided an after school enrichment program at a local elementary school. I was trying out some new ideas to spark creative thinking in kids. The program was only open to students in 2nd to 5th grade, but the principal of the school mistakenly invited kindergarteners and first graders to join, too.

When I arrived at school the principal told me that the little ones had no other place to go during the program, so I had to include them. I was concerned because I didn’t believe children so young could possibly keep up with the older ones. I was wrong.

I prompted the group of 14 to generate new uses for everyday items (see "What Can You Do with a Paper Clip?"), sketch imaginary animals, make up stories based on random images, invent new toys, and solve outrageous problems. The youngest ones eagerly embraced the challenges and ran circles around most of the 4th and 5th graders.

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Celebrate Your Child's Creativity

When I was in the fourth grade our teacher, Miss Malkin, gave us an unusual assignment. She wrote a word on the chalkboard and gave us ten minutes to list as many words as we could think of using only the word's letters.

When the time was up, Miss Malkin asked the top student in our class how many words she had. Bonnie announced that she had 34 words. The teacher asked if anyone had more.

I was the only other student who raised a hand, and I reported that I had 116 words. As Miss Malkin approached my desk she declared loudly, "You must have done it incorrectly." But when she scrutinized my list, she saw that I had, indeed, done it correctly!

Miss Malkin was slack-jawed, and sat staring at me for the longest time. (I didn't think I had done anything special — to me, the assignment was a snap.) But Miss Malkin was clearly astonished, for I was a bright student, but rarely earned the highest grades in our class.

Miss Malkin didn't know anything about creativity. If she had, she would have known that creative thinking embodies the skills at work in a task such as this...

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