Creativity Blockers

Today’s topic is a bit of a hard pill to swallow, along with the possibility (and responsibility) to build creativity in our students, we as teachers (more often than we would like to admit) find ourselves straddling the danger of killing off the creativity that they are willing to share with us. This is a frightening fact that we must face head on. There are plenty of ways that creativity can be squashed and in order to reflect on this I reviewed a list of 10 possibilities for “Extinguishing the Creative Spirit” created by Roger von Oech in his book A Whack on the Side of the Head. Then I reviewed the list to see what I hear/experience the most often in schools. Finally, I reviewed the list looking to see what on the list I have said/felt in my own life, both in and outside of school.

Those which I have seen/heard:

1. To Err Is Wrong

This is a particularly common one in academia. There are certain subjects that have less restrictive criteria than others, but even in English classes I have witnessed students told that their interpretations of literature were “wrong,” not unsupported, just “wrong.” What a dangerous thing to tell a person, who believes him/herself to have made some great discovery or insight into both his/her own life as well as a connection with the author. Telling people that they are wrong is rarely helpful, whereas guiding someone toward a better supported theory or reviewing how some conclusion was arrived at could potentially lend a hand to the development of creativity.

2. Be Practical

Now this is just a difficult one for any teacher, or authority figure, who has spent any time with adolescents. I recently spent some time talking with a current Student-teacher who was describing to me the difficulties that he is having with encouraging his students to answer questions in a way that will propel his lesson. Instead of explaining that everything that he is working toward violates the work of Paulo Freire, I advised him that he simply needed to let his lessons flow naturally and give students opportunities to answer questions that do not control where he is going. What I took from this was that we as teachers need to be able let our students minds wander. Our thinking is likely no less linear than many of our students and confining them to this strict pattern of “our plans” is a disservice to them.

3. That’s Not Logical

Another very difficult blocker to deal with, when working with adolescents, is, seemingly, illogical thinking. Much like the previous creative block there is a strong tendency to try to force students minds to work the way that we want them to. This often becomes a struggle between student and teacher.

4. Play Is Frivolous

There is often little time for play in the classroom; unfortunately this extends to playing with ideas. I am a big fan of allowing students to have time to finesse their thoughts, but even I have found myself “cracking down” on students who appear to be playing, or in my own interpretation off task. This does not give students the freedom that they need to be truly creative. I suppose there would need to be some sort of agreement between the students and teacher as to what “appropriate” play looks like, in a classroom. This leads to another issue of whether or not creativity should be restrained in any manner. But that is for another day.

5. I’m Not Creative

This is sadly one of the most common blockers of students’ creativity. Typically, when an assignment in which students are required to show their creativity is made many students shy away and complain that they are not creative. This is terribly unfortunate.

Which do you USE the most?

1. Avoid Ambiguity

This one is terribly difficult being an English teacher. We have to teach a strict avoidance of ambiguity in writing, this sometimes leaks into speaking as well. Sometimes, I suppose, we as teachers must allow students the time to work through ambiguity, and not discourage it. Great thoughts rarely come out that way, and we must learn to relish all of our students “diamonds in the rough”s.

2. That’s Not My Area

This is one that affects me. This block happens immediately whenever a math problem presents itself. Rather than trying to solve the problem I will look to someone else. This not only limits my math skill development, but also does not allow me to create ways to solve such problems.

3. Follow The Rules

This one is very difficult for me as a substitute teacher. I often find myself shushing students more than what I probably should during group work. Again, here I think we need to have conversations with our students wherein we develop a set of rules that should be followed that are not limiting.

There are many questions to be answered as to how to promote creativity while moving students appropriately toward our goals for them.