Cultivating Creativity

Author(s): Donna L. Miller

Source: The English Journal , July 2015, Vol. 104, No. 6 (July 2015), pp. 25-30
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24484423

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 Donna L. Miller

This piece explores

Cultivating Creativity conditions that stimulate

classroom activities to

facilitate creative habits

of mind in an effort to
motivate educators

and students to better

understand the

complexities of creativity
and how to promote it.

Although creativity is not a subject be relevant today. Newsweek 's Po Bronson and Ash
but a means to achieve a result, ley Merryman also blame the schools, claiming
schools can contribute to cultivating that the culprit is "lack of creativity development
it when educators design classroom in our schools . . . {where] there's no concerted ef
activities to facilitate creative habits of mind. The fort to nurture the creativity of all children" (45).
endeavor will require time, not only to revise cul- During the Opening Session speech at the 2012
tural archetypes and to operationalize social beliefs National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
but also for educators and students to better under- Annual Convention, Sir Ken Robinson, author
stand the complexities of creativity and how to pro- and international education advisor, argued that
mote it. Teachers building an argument to convince the three principles upon which the current edu
administrators of the validity of nurturing creativity cational system is built—conformity, compliance,
might begin with the ideas proposed here. and predictability—are at odds with principles of
human behavior. Because those principles contra
diet natural human creativity and imagination, the
Advocates for Creativity
system needs to change. To address the dropout
Current research tells us that generative energy crisis and to ensure economic productivity, Robin
surges in climates of discovery, invention, and son believes education should (1) embrace multiple
investigation—where people engage in higher- cultural values; (2) connect children to their spirits,
order thinking, probe with questions, and solve customizing and personalizing curriculum to en
complex problems that have more than one answer; able the discovery of true talents; and (3) awaken
when ownership, engagement, and flow are central passions by focusing on innovation and creativity
to learning; and where protective psychological (Robinson).
constructs support learners as they befriend failure The impact passion can have on learning and
and embrace cognitive dissonance. Those changes, life was a recurring theme in Robinson's talk. To
however, depend on how willing society is to aban- ignite passion in their students, Robinson claims,
don contemporary educational designs as well as on "Teachers should be flexible, willing to adapt les
how the current cultural climate defines and pro- son plans to personalize learning." If we insist that
motes creativity. everyone takes every subject, we flatten interest, di
Advocates for creativity and change (Gard- lute passion, and kill creativity, according to Robin
ner; Gatto; Newkirk; Pope; Robinson) often cite son. Robinson defines the imagination as the heart
the systemic focus on convergent thinking, knowl- of human life and creativity as applied imagination,
edge consumption, and competition—a model If education is to persist, it must embrace
that may have suited the interests of industrialism these definitions. The current culture of stan
and a factory-driven economy but may no longer dardization with its narrow conception of ability

English Journal 104.6 (2015): 25-30 25

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 Cultivating Creativity

undermines innovation and bleaches out diversity. as well as the age-grade structure proposed in the
Educators must craft conditions that motivate ere- mid-19th century by John Goodlad, all undermine
ativity and design classroom activities that encour- what we know today about the course of human de
age experimentation and accept making mistakes as velopment: "Variability, not uniformity, is the hall
part of the process. Such an environment resembles mark of the human condition" (Eisner 185).
a playground more than a school room. Lev Vygotsky further asserted that learning
and problem solving initially emerge on a social
plane, one that favors cooperative learning and peer
Scrutinizing Models
interaction. Applying Vygotsky's theory involves
For a contemporary definition of creativity, consider recognizing ways in which culture influences cog
episodes of The Big Bang Theory, the number-one nitive development and takes into account a learn
sitcom in syndication (Keveney) created by Chuck er's actual developmental level as it relates to his or
Lorre and Bill Prady, which features tropes of ere- her level of potential development. Vygotsky called
ative production. In these scenes, physicist geniuses this the "zone of proximal development" and de
Leonard and Sheldon—whether they are working at scribed its role in the sustained engagement learn
the university or at home where they have turned ing requires. Learners can typically complete more
their apartment's living room difficult tasks in collaboration with competent
Vibrant, satisfying, healthy into a laboratory—surround adults. Such interactions promote maximum cog
communities depend on themselves with gear, gadgets, nitive growth because they stretch existing knowl
and charts for information in- edge and skills, thereby building mental muscle,
the interaction of young
puts. Sometimes the computer
and old; school should
is central to idea generation or
not separate family information processing. Most Implementing Change
from vital interaction often the team is standing, Cultivating creativity, then, will require multi
with each other. pacing, and thinking with age groups of students who engage in experiences
their hands, and if the prob- that arouse curiosity, strengthen initiative, and set
lern calls for it, they summon friends Rajeesh and up desires and purposes that elicit motivation for
Howard for their added expertise and diverse per- learning. In these lively laboratories, interactive
spectives. In this crazy but safe place, people can say workshops, and cooperative enterprises, curricula
what is usually only thought. Such an open, social are driven by real-world inquiry, and trained pro
environment produces results because it encourages fessionals provide the expertise and support neces
argumentation and does not succumb to interrup- sary to facilitate students' desired goals. Learners
tion. To vanquish interruption, the scientists pull might apprentice with a professional who has a
all-nighters and abandon all distraction. Eliminât- project already underway or collaborate with a team
ing attention to time instead signals that serious- to develop a project of interest. These expert teach
ness of purpose and exhaustive effort are essential to ers might be parents, grandparents, or other com
knowledge production. munity members, since vibrant, satisfying, healthy
To emulate this model, schools would have to communities depend on the interaction of young
dispense with their bell systems, grade levels, com- and old; school should not separate family from
partmentalizing of curriculum, and predilection for vital interaction with each other. Because schools
independent rather than collaborative performance. can support this kind of learning, I do not espouse
According to John Taylor Gatto's criticism of con- the philosophy of radical unschooling. But if they
temporary schooling, bells and timed tests send the intend to grow creativity, schools must foster cli
subliminal message that no work is worth finishing. mates of discovery, invention, and investigation
Linda McNeil, Denise C. Pope, Elliott Eisner, and where people engage in higher-order thinking, pose
other researchers have further revealed that mechan- telling questions, and solve complex problems that
ical, routine, strictly linear approaches to teaching have more than one answer.
and learning do not honor innovation and individ- Ralph Fletcher also argues that "Fun is a
uality. Scripted or "one size fits all" curriculums, Trojan horse for weightier educational terms like

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 Donna L. Miller

ownership, engagement, and flow. Fun matters" (18). "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never
To make his point, Fletcher uses the analogy of an come up with anything original."
athlete juking and jiving on a drive for the basket— Although fearing failure censors creativity,
poetry in motion—and invites us to wonder, Is the fear of rejection may be more difficult to manage,
athlete working or playing? Such talent, such art The humiliation of rejection threatens self-esteem,
requires deep, deliberate practice, but pleasure also Because original ideas are often suspect, a culture
resides in the rigor. We "become more skillful not may ignore or oppose a person's creative output,
merely through work and study, but through play" This potential rejection frequently silences creativ
(25). Just as a basketball player competes in pickup ity. Csikszentmihalyi reminds us that creativity
games, teachers hope students read during the off- cannot bring forth anything
Nurturing
season, sharpening skill while motivated by love of new unless it can enlist the creativity
the game. Fletcher borrows the term flow from Mi- support of others. Creativ time not
will require
haly Csikszentmihalyi who first described the flow ity, in Csikszentmihalyi's
only to revise cultural
as "the state in which people are so involved in an view, is not simply aarchetypes
func and to
activity that nothing else seems to matter; the ex- tion of giftedness; it shows
operationalize social
perience itself is so enjoyable that people will do how responsive the social
beliefs, but also time for
it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it" system is to novel ideas
educators and students
{Flow A). since "the community, not
the individual, tomakes
better understand
cre the
ativity manifest" ("Systems"
complexities of creativity
Potential Barriers
16). Therefore, as
and educators
how to promote it.
Unfortunately, for many policymakers and admin- revise class
istrators, a playground model implies an absence craft conditio
of productivity. In fact, play and fun are just non- be prepared f
technical terms for Vygotsky's zone of proximal require time
development and Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow. and to ope
With fun at the center of learning, teachers keep for educators
youth engaged and can teach into their intrepid complexities o
and inquisitive natures. Failing to acknowledge a
role for pleasure and sociability reflects a misread
Confronting Cultural Resistance
ing of human motivation. The research of British
psychoanalyst Donald Woods Winnicott defined While reverence for scientist Jonas Salk and archi
play as a multipurpose vehicle for learning and tect Frank Lloyd Wright certainly attests to soci
adapting to the real world. His findings suggest ety's recognition of creative genius in science or
that play, fantasizing, and creativity represent high engineering, the word creative often conjures images
levels of abstraction and that the brain grows in a from the arts—musicians, authors, poets, painters,
social environment. and philosophers—who contribute to culture and
Besides time, enemies of flow in the divergent change the way we live and think. Contempora
thinking process include fearing failure as well as archetypes usually portray the artist as starvi
fearing rejection. John Dewey, Sheridan Blau, Kel- as plagued with anguish, essentially a misfit w
ley Wells, and Donna L. Miller describe how true sacrifices his or her life for creative output. If
knowledge production and learning depend on look at the grim death count of creative peo
one's tolerance threshold, on how long the learner we see many talented people such as Vincent v
can tolerate ambiguity or unpredictability while Gogh or Edgar Allan Poe undone by their gifts.
wrestling with doubt. Since failure is not only a a result, creative ventures may make us nervous
part of life but also an essential part of the creative Furthermore, society's focus has shifted since
process, we must embrace cognitive dissonance and Renaissance, from creativity to productivity,
accept that mistakes and confusion will litter the This shift is revealed in the historical fi
path to knowledge production. As Robinson states, of Kenneth Oppel. In his newest book for you

English Journal 27

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 Cultivating Creativity

readers, The Boundless, Oppel has chosen a late conversation and begin to push the boundaries of
1800s setting when the Canadian Pacific Railway student thought into new ways of knowing,
was being built. The Boundless tells the action- Furthermore, because the word genius derives
packed and compelling story of Will Everett's life. from the French word génie, or "tutelary spirit,"
Will's passion is drawing; he is never without his as well as from the Latin word genius, "a guard
sketchbook, yet his father forbids Will to attend art ian deity or spirit," it conjures images of magic or
school in San Francisco, calling his desire to become of the god complex—otherworldly concepts that
an artist a foolhardy experiment, one he won't pay call into question the mental health or actual hu
for. James Everett encourages Will to instead use manity of the gifted. Artists and other innovators
his talent and his mind on the railroad's expansion, often possess acute sensitivity in experiencing the
designing bridges and fleets of ocean liners, but world, and because their sensations appear to come
Will is not sure that is what he is meant to do. In from another plane, these creative minds strug
reply to Will's argument, his father retorts: "Meant gle to get others to see and feel as they do. This
to do? That's nonsense. A man does what he needs inability to communicate may identify the true
to do, to make his way in the world, to support a culprit for the anguish in these individuals. The
family" (54; italics in original). He wonders why pressure to create something that is not only new
his son would seek out poverty when better oppor- and unique but also understood and celebrated by
tunities are available. a larger community can easily become overwhelm
The contemporary prevalence of this attitude ing, as well. Fostering creativity, then,
accounts for some of the social resistance schools equipping those creative minds with
might encounter as they seek to promote creativity. psychological constructs, teaching th
Teachers can invite the reading of texts like Oppel's manage the inherent emotional risks
in the classroom and then initiate conversations with creative impulses.
that challenge the status quo, providing a counter- While psychological researchers
narrative. In the same way that authors wrote frac- mihalyi, Creativity; Franken; Ormrod
tured fairy tales, teachers can offer another way to vary in their opinions about the nature
see the world, addressing the question, Who wants ity, in general they agree about creativit
to be a starving artist rather than a wealthy CEO in ship to novelty and to a productive res
a society that has traded creative genius for produc- enough for an idea to be new and origi
tive stability? also have value to one's culture or be appropriate
Revisiting the pop-culture images seen in to the cognitive demands of a situat
the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, the question be- chologists also agree that—while we
comes, Who wants to be hyper-intelligent if it grow into Edisons or Einsteins—creativ
means you're socially inept and unable to sustain a tension of normal mental capacity; it
meaningful relationship with a chosen partner, such entity that people either have or d
as the beautiful blonde across the hall? While the ronmental factors play important ro
show is prone to hyperbole and to stereotypes and opment of creativity, a fact Carol Dw
mocks for the sake of comedy, some might suggest her definition of the growth mindset
it champions nerd culture. Still, to be branded as mindset, learners understand that cr
a nerd or a geek in certain circles is social suicide. developed and doesn't depend solely
To be marginalized as socially awkward or uncool rather, with stimulation, creativity g
is especially tragic during the niche-picking period Csikszentmihalyi (<Creativity) substa
of adolescence when social belongingness is critical of environmental factors in his in-de
since it helps students see themselves as import- people. In many of his subjects, t
ant and valued members of a community. When function triggered creative impul
English teachers encounter this conflict in young families are not exempt from creati
adult books—whether that be in a book like Op- Intellectuals, artists, professiona
pel's or Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl—or in sitcoms such who expose children to new ideas
as The Big Bang Theory, they can initiate classroom

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 Donna L. Miller

challenges and situations that stretch thinking and used to measure a student's creativity. As part of
experience also foster creativity. the EdSteps initiative, CCSSO assembled a group
of leaders in education charged with developing an
instrument that measures originality and impact
Nurturing and Assessing Creativity
of creativity within and across all disciplines. The
With his Five Minds Theory, social scientist How- group, which defines creativity as "the valued uses
ard Gardner proposes the nurturing of five actions and outcomes of originality driven by imagination,
of the mind, among them the creating mind. After invention, and curiosity," has devised the Creativity
reading Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, I syn- Graph as a measurement tool (CCSSO, Creativity
thesized a definition from Gardner's theory to reca- Graph). A work scores along the Originality axis
pitulate the principle features of the creating mind. based upon whether the work is new and unique,
Each of the bulleted points is a label that I invented with consideration for how the work
to capture an element of that habit as identified and • , ,
r • is appropriate to the task,
defined by Gardner in the development of his th
ory. The creating
boundaries,
mind * Çhall
• poses unfamiliar questions; , • . lr, • ,
r -i > • combines material/ideas in unusual ways,
• conjures fresh ways of thinking; . , . . , ,
' je • shows capacity to manipulate relevant
• arrives at unexpected answers; knowledge,
• posits new ideas; • displays imagination, and
• considers multiple angles; • demonstrates elaboration and/or complex
• assumes alternate identities; », , . ,
A work scores along the I
• devises ingenious solutions; upon how
• shifts frameworks; of others, with consideration for whether the work
• presents uncertainty, surprise, disequilib- inspires or influences peers, school, local commu
rium; and nity, a field of study, or society/culture (CCSSO,
• takes interpretive risks. EdSteps).
Using the best research, evidence, and think
Educators might consider identifying this ing to define the skill or competency area, the Ed
habit of mind and then fostering it by showing Steps workgroup shows that creativity lies along
students that creativity is valued, designing learn- a continuum. To create the creativity continuum,
ing experiences that encourage divergent thinking, researchers are selecting a representative subset of
asking thought-provoking questions, giving stu- about one thousand samples that reflect variety in
dents the freedom and security to take risks, and grade level, demographics, ability level, and attri
providing the time that creativity requires. To fur- butes specific to the skill area—in this case, cre
ther foster creativity, learners might benefit from ativity. The samples in the subset will be paired
heuristics—like the list above—to indicate features according to a mathematical model where review
of the creating mind. A heuristic may help adoles- ers make comparisons to determine which arti
cents not only see but also name valued features; fact is more effective. With these work samples,
producing them may follow. one can conceivably assess creativity by finding a
Besides the challenge of designing learning likeness on the continuum, providing a creativ
experiences that germinate and cultivate creativ- ity score. Although the continuum is still under
ity in schools, educators must also have a practi- construction, the models come from submissions
cal means of appreciating, understanding, and gathered from grades one through professional or
assessing creativity. To facilitate this endeavor, the ganizations across disciplines. When completed,
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) EdSteps.org will host a Web-based public library
has established EdSteps, an innovative assessment of thousands of pieces representative of creativity,
program in which actual student work samples are Using this gradual progression from emerging to

English Journal 29

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 Cultivating Creativity

accomplished work, students, parents, and teachers . "A Systems Perspective of Creativity." Creative
Management and Development. Ed. Jane Henry. 3rd ed.
can discern how any individual performance com
London: Sage, 2006. 3-16. Print.
pares to that of others across the country and what Dewey, John. How We Think. Boston: DC Heath, 1910.
features that creative mind can revise to improve. Print.

Visitors to the site will find graphs and charts to il Dweck, Carol. "Even Geniuses Work Hard." Educational
Leadership 68.1 (2010): 16—20. Print.
lustrate how a creative work might be assessed. Ed Eisner, Elliot. The Kind of Schools We Need: Personal Essays.
Steps proposes this method of evaluation to assess Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1998. Print.
creativity, a quality that is traditionally difficult or Fletcher, Ralph. Pyrotechnics on the Page: Playful Craft That
Sparks Writing. Portland: Stenhouse, 2010. Print.
costly to assess in schools. Franken, Robert E. Human Motivation. 3rd ed. New York:
If we are experiencing a creativity crisis, re Brooks/Cole, 1993. Print.
versing the trend and promoting conceptual change Gardner, Howard. Five Minds for the Future. 2nd ed. Boston:
Harvard Business, 2008. Print.
will be a process that will require patience and
Gatto, John Taylor. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curricu
perseverance; results will not be immediate. The lum of Compulsory ^schooling. Philadelphia: New Soci
endeavor will require time not only to revise cul ety, 1992. Print.
tural archetypes and to operationalize social beliefs, Keveney, Bill. "A 'Big Bang' Boom Propels the Top Sit
but also time for educators and students to better
com." USA Today 7 Mar. 2013: 1D-2D. Print.
McNeil, Linda. Contradictions of School Reform: Educational
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2000. Print.
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Miller, Donna L. "Got It Wrong? Think Again. And
makes the transition, English teachers can lead
Again." Phi Delta Kappan 94.5 (2013): 50-52. Print.
the charge by nurturing the actions of the creating Newkirk, Thomas. The Art of Slow Reading. Portsmouth:
mind as described by Gardner, by designing curric Heinemann, 2012. Print.
Oppel, Kenneth. The Boundless. New York: Simon, 2014.
ulum that facilitates the five steps in the creative Print.
process outlined by Csikszentmihalyi, and by readOrmrod, Jeanne E. Educational Psychology. 6th ed. Upper
ing and discussing books that disrupt and subvert Saddle River: Pearson, 2008. Print.
mainstream definitions of creativity. % Pope, Denise C. "Doing School": How We Are Creating a Gen
eration of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated
Students. New Haven: Yale UP, 2001. Print.
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Their Readers. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2003. Print. NCTE Annual Convention.
Bronson, Po, and Ashley Merryman. "The Creativity Cri Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. New York: Random, 2000. Print.
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For 26 years, Donna L. Miller (donnamiller@itstriangle.com) taught English, Drama, and Advanced Placement E
Chinook High School on the Northern Tier of Montana called the Hi-Line. She currently directs the Teacher Trainin
at Aaniiih Nakoda College on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. She has been a member of NCTE since 2001, an
she was named an NCTE Secondary Section National Teacher of Excellence.

READWRITETHINK CONNECTION Lisa Storm Fink, RWT

One way students can show their creativity is through use of techno
WriteThink.org, you will learn about reading online, blogs, podcasts,
learning. http://bit.ly/1sRxAVh

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