Reflections on Creativity. What stays and what disappears during the school years.

Reflections on Creativity.  What stays and what disappears during the school years.

Considering the natural flow of children’s creative unfurling, we can see how the delight and excitement of mark making accompanies the child through time. The awakening of perception skills and language enable the child to experiment and draw satisfaction in using scribbles and drawing to enhance this interaction with the environment. Cognitive developments selects what is expressed in ways that show the child’s learning path.  As Kindler (2010) demonstrates, artistic development is dynamic and is constantly expressing the present moment and ready to leap forward redefining itself through the child’s interaction with the environment and his/her visions. Furthermore, she notes how researches Jessica Davis, Howard Gardner and Ellen Winner (2012) affirm that artistic ability of young children is stronger than that of older children. (Kindler, 2010) A strong and powerful drive enables the young child to produce striking artwork in kindergarten. Colour, shape, line and form run and move as acrobats free from stereotypes. As David Perkins (1981), states in his Snowflake Model of Creativity, mental flexibility helps find different approaches towards meeting the goals intended. This is what the young child thrives and free from stereotypes wanders searching for answers. No less important is the inner motivation that drives the child to practice constantly maybe drawing the saw object times and times again until the biological clock ticks the hour of innovation and the child moves on carrying his splendid workload of expertise to his/her next developmental phase.

Ken Robinson (2015) describes children as natural born learners.

“We are born with all the skills, all the basics we need. Babies and very young children are incredibly intuitive, naturally creative and deeply curious.”

The early years are a grand celebration of natural learning, where the impossible seems possible, where simple objects become the imaginable and round every corner there is the unexpected element of magic and transformation.

Then school starts. A curtain is drawn. In most cases no more light shines through and the earlier dynamic phase is obscured by pre-selected activities, themes and topics the core subjects of literacy and numeracy take over leaving the child hungry for a wedge of individuality. Paul Klee (1939) noted that the uncorrupted individuality is now corrupted with rewards and good marks for complying with the standard rules.  Creativity seems to be asked to fall asleep, to be tucked away and drawn out only when summoned. As Leslie Owen,(2017) states creativity is stolen away and she makes a clear list based on the research of Goleman, Kaufman and Ray (1962)  where the thieves are:  evaluation, rewards, competition, over control, restricting choice and I would like to add, compliance.

 The fledgling artists could be compared to the story of Sleeping Beauty where creativity in the arts is wrapped in thorns and brambles. The handsome prince could be dressed up as the Reggio Emilia Educational Approach. The main characters being a group of enlighten teachers and pedagogists that bless the artistic drive with renewed life.

Malaguzzi’s Hundred Languages of Children (1998) empowered children’s creativity by creating an innovative educational approach that put the child in the centre of its learning path giving him/her full rights. Teachers were supported by artists in the newly created Atelier. The child’s creativity was asked to flourish and encouraged to expand.

Born as kindergartens the Reggio Schools now provide education all the way through the primary years. This has further reinforced the pedagogy of creativity through child-initiated interests. Children’s creative skills in all areas of a school curriculum find support and encouragement. The dormant phase is no longer an obvious phase. Children become artists in their own right. Vea Vecchi (2010) describes the young artist as connected with the processes of learning who is able to build relationships across disciplines, making the development of understanding a natural flow between research, experimentation and theory.