The Creativity Crisis

Newsweek ^ | July10,2010 | Po Bronson / Ashley Merryman

[woofie]

For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. What went wrong—and how we can fix it.

Back in 1958, Ted Schwarzrock was an 8-year-old third grader when he became one of the “Torrance kids,” a group of nearly 400 Minneapolis children who completed a series of creativity tasks newly designed by professor E. Paul Torrance. Schwarzrock still vividly remembers the moment when a psychologist handed him a fire truck and asked, “How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?” He recalls the psychologist being excited by his answers. In fact, the psychologist’s session notes indicate Schwarzrock rattled off 25 improvements, such as adding a removable ladder and springs to the wheels. That wasn’t the only time he impressed the scholars, who judged Schwarzrock to have “unusual visual perspective” and “an ability to synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products.”

The accepted definition of creativity is production of something original and useful, and that’s what’s reflected in the tests. There is never one right answer. To be creative requires divergent thinking (generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining those ideas into the best result).

In the 50 years since Schwarzrock and the others took their tests, scholars—first led by Torrance, now his colleague, Garnet Millar—have been tracking the children, recording every patent earned, every business founded, every research paper published, and every grant awarded. They tallied the books, dances, radio shows, art exhibitions, software programs, advertising campaigns, hardware innovations, music compositions, public policies (written or implemented), leadership positions, invited lectures, and buildings designed.

Nobody would argue that Torrance’s tasks, which have become the gold standard in creativity assessment, measure creativity perfectly. What’s shocking is how incredibly well Torrance’s creativity index predicted those kids’ creative accomplishments .............

[woofie]

This is a long article

To read an article about this article go here:

http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2010/08/02/20153/critical_thinking_is_critical_to_americas_progress

or

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=67918

[woofie]

This is a long article
To read an article about this article go here:

http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2010/08/02/20153/critical_thinking_is_critical_to_americas_progress

or

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=67918

[woofie]

I know everything about art but I dont know what I like

[oblomov]

Refreshing to hear someone say that...many people say the converse.

[Paladin2]

Zer0’s fault.

[FrankR]

When rewarding and recognizing INDIVIDUAL ACHEIVEMENT went out of style...so went CREATIVITY.

Art and invention is usually not a group endeavor, but these days those who can excel, are forced to share the credit with a group who had nothing to do with it...much like obama wanting the producers to share wealth with people who did nothing to earn it.

We hear tales about schools discontinuing the Valedictorian program, so it won't make the lower students "feel bad". Banning keeping scores at sports competitions so the losing team/person won't "feel bad".

We see people working their rear ends off, only to be passed over for promotions or raises because the quota says the "AFFIRMATIVE ACTION" guy has to get it first..because of his color.

And they wonder where CREATIVITY went...I wonder where their common sense went.

[aberaussie]

bttt

[filbert]

When you can have animals randomly splattering paint onto canvases and call it “art” . . .

Explain to me exactly what “creativity” means any more . . .

The “creative class” is a bunch of . . . (I don’t want to get banned, so I won’t say what I want to say . . .)

[DB]

I second that.

[magellan]

"When rewarding and recognizing INDIVIDUAL ACHEIVEMENT went out of style...so went CREATIVITY."

An excellent observation.

[MWestMom]

Also, since “necessity is the mother of invention’” the entitlement mentality today doesn’t have the need to aspire to creativity or invention.

[woofie]

Im not certain but Im pretty sure we are doomed

[dr_lew]

Kind of a sore point with me. Circa 1960 I was in the sixth grade ( I remember the teacher ) and we were given an in-class “art” assignment to create an imaginative creature. It seems to me that we used cut out construction paper, because I remember my creation as composed of a rectangular body, a semi-circular head, and short strips for antenna-like ears and four legs. I called it the “hiccupper” and drew little footprints for its tracks as it hiccupped its way along.

The teacher reviewed our creations, and cited several of them for exceptional creativity, not including mine. I confronted her, and demanded to know in what ways my creation was deficient in creativity, as I was quite taken with it myself. She was not hesitant to explain. The main thing I remember is that she pointed out that it had four legs, which was not creative. My thought was, “What do you want?” but I withdrew in submission.

To this day, I refuse to relinquish the conviction that I am a creative soul.

[Jack Hydrazine]

"Im not certain but Im pretty sure we are doomed"

Plucker recently toured a number of such schools in Shanghai and Beijing. He was amazed by a boy who, for a class science project, rigged a tracking device for his moped with parts from a cell phone. When faculty of a major Chinese university asked Plucker to identify trends in American education, he described our focus on standardized curriculum, rote memorization, and nationalized testing. “After my answer was translated, they just started laughing out loud,” Plucker says. “They said, ‘You’re racing toward our old model. But we’re racing toward your model, as fast as we can.’ ”

America is fast becoming a fusion of the old Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, and the African nations. Third world here we come!

[woofie]

I actually was a child prodigy and excelled at art ...however when I hit 7th grade a biology teacher held up my drawing of cells or pigs guts or whatever and said offhand to the class “this student will never be an artist”

The kids that knew me and remembered my child prodigy phase all laughed

Im still involved in the art world

[Pining_4_TX]

Do away with mind-numbing government schools. That would be a start. How about some freedom and competition in education for a change?

[savagesusie]

Degenerate art was encouraged to take down America. Competition was ended in the nineties. If there was a Valedictorian, there were 7 or 8....which made it meaningless.
Excellence is discouraged. Our schools are set up to make “divergent” thinkers feel humiliated, different and an outsider. Conformity is how today’s classrooms are designed.
Group work (encourage communes and dependence)is always done now. Individuality, independence from teacher, is strictly discouraged and demonized. They teach dependence on the teacher for every move—you have to get permission for everything, even to go to the bathroom. They are being CONDITIONED. (I would NEVER put my kids in the public schools.....they teach moral relativism on top of it all which leads to nowhere).

Our future creative people will NOT come from public schools. The Progressive Communists and Unions are making sure of that.

They want little conformists who follow the group’s thinking.

[sueuprising]

“To this day, I refuse to relinquish the conviction that I am a creative soul.”
Boy do I empathize with you. I was in the 4th grade in 1960 and I well remember the Art teacher, Mrs. Walshinak, who never considered any of my art work worthy of hanging up in the showcase. To this day, and I am edging towards 58 years old, I have never forgotten how awful I felt since I considered myself creative and imaginative. lol.. oh well. I think every kid should have a chance of having their art work displayed, particularly if you worked hard on it. But creativity being on the decline has more to do with lack of interest I think, on the part of the student, and probably a sense of panic since public school is mostly standardized testing which does not encourage thinking for oneself.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I love this sentence in the article.

“It’s too early to determine conclusively why U.S. creativity scores are declining.”

Let’s see. Lack of parents and parenting with help from the ever-increasing illegitimacy rate, letting tv, internet, and video games pass the time, our socialized school system, and other influences I can’t think of right off the top of my head.

[Jack Hydrazine]

This doesn’t help either.

KINDERGARTEN COPULATE
Proposed Sex Ed Has Parents Outraged in Montana
http://888webtoday.com/articles/viewnews.cgi?id=EkZAVVlFAFSJCDqPlo