Creativity Should be at the Heart of Education

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” — Alan Kay

Creativity should be at the center of the school curriculum. This seems especially true in America which is, after all, the land of entrepreneurs and innovation. Americans, like Thomas Edison helped invent our modern century. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs ushered us into the digital age. And Elon Musk carries on the tradition, hoping to help us into a greener future.

Whenever I suggest this idea, people push back. Some say that school should be about the basics — reading, writing, and math; they believe there is no time for other pursuits. Others note that as kids get older they must learn subjects — social studies, history, and science. Once they have mastered a subject they are ready to make novel contributions to the subject matter. Creativity enters the picture at a later stage.

I think these criticisms have some merit, and I will address them at another time. But here I would like to address the most common push back that I hear, most often from parents: Some children just aren’t cut out for creativity. They don’t have the aptitude or inclination.

I say not true. I say this not because I have surveyed a representative group of children and found none of them lacking. I say it because creativity is something we do, not something we have.

There is a modern tendency to think that we all have a fixed set of traits that determine where we go in life. But as Forest Gump reminded us: Stupid is as stupid does. The same applies to creativity and many other behaviors as well.

Consider IQ, for example. It is said that IQ is a measure of intelligence, whatever that might be. Some people are said to have more of this smartness thing we call IQ, and others less. Yet we can all agree that high IQ people do dumb things, and low IQ people sometimes do smart things. Like stupidity, smart is, as smart does. And in a similar fashion, creative is, as creative does.

Still not convinced. Try this. Go to any bookstore and pick up a book on how to be more creative. There are plenty to choose from, written by advertising executives, writers, mystics, and even academics. Now ask yourself, why do so many people…

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