Easy to say, the experts explain, but grasping the best way to accomplish that can be difficult, primary because there are so many viewpoints about how best to develop a child’s creative skills.
There’s science and creativity, math and creativity, writing and creativity, but possibly the best lesson on creativity involves a child’s uninhibited drawings as a preschooler.
“The above image is typical of a kindergarten child’s uninhibited pre-schematic drawing of herself. “Most five-year-olds are totally confident that they can draw, sing, and dance,” says Marvin Bartel, EdD, emeritus professor of art at Goshen College in Indiana, adding that within three or four years, if this child is typical, she will no longer feel competent or creative.
Teachers are partially to blame for this diminished inclination to be creative as children become socialized and more intelligent, he says.
Bartel sees the least imaginative work being produced when a teacher gives instructions by saying, “In this lesson you can draw any topic you want to,” or “In this lesson, you can work in any media you like.”
Even when a kid’s work seems to capitalize on the individual’s creativity, Bartel explains, often it is just a rehash of the child’s previous success at being creative.
“We all have seen how young children have a strong imagination,” says C. J. Ellis of KidsReadUs.com. Why children seem to lose that imagination, however, has never been documented.
Some believe that children “lose” their imagination because they are encouraged to “copy things in workbooks, color in other people’s pictures, and do similar activities that all conspire to discourage creative and imaginative thinking,” Bartel says.
To Ellis, it may just be a matter of encouraging kids to keep their imagination alive. “Instead of telling your child to draw a picture of a horse or cow or truck that someone else has drawn, show several pictures of the same object to your child, then remove the pictures, and let your child’s imagination take over.”
It's as simple as asking your kids to draw their interpretation of what they have seen to help them Let Their Imagination Fly!
Image ©Marvin Bartel, EdD
There’s science and creativity, math and creativity, writing and creativity, but possibly the best lesson on creativity involves a child’s uninhibited drawings as a preschooler.
“The above image is typical of a kindergarten child’s uninhibited pre-schematic drawing of herself. “Most five-year-olds are totally confident that they can draw, sing, and dance,” says Marvin Bartel, EdD, emeritus professor of art at Goshen College in Indiana, adding that within three or four years, if this child is typical, she will no longer feel competent or creative.
Teachers are partially to blame for this diminished inclination to be creative as children become socialized and more intelligent, he says.
Bartel sees the least imaginative work being produced when a teacher gives instructions by saying, “In this lesson you can draw any topic you want to,” or “In this lesson, you can work in any media you like.”
Even when a kid’s work seems to capitalize on the individual’s creativity, Bartel explains, often it is just a rehash of the child’s previous success at being creative.
“We all have seen how young children have a strong imagination,” says C. J. Ellis of KidsReadUs.com. Why children seem to lose that imagination, however, has never been documented.
Some believe that children “lose” their imagination because they are encouraged to “copy things in workbooks, color in other people’s pictures, and do similar activities that all conspire to discourage creative and imaginative thinking,” Bartel says.
To Ellis, it may just be a matter of encouraging kids to keep their imagination alive. “Instead of telling your child to draw a picture of a horse or cow or truck that someone else has drawn, show several pictures of the same object to your child, then remove the pictures, and let your child’s imagination take over.”
It's as simple as asking your kids to draw their interpretation of what they have seen to help them Let Their Imagination Fly!
Image ©Marvin Bartel, EdD
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