Peyman Allahvirdizadeh ENG 961A Mr.

Isles 24/08/2011 "Summary of The Creativity Crisis"

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in their article "The Creativity Crisis" discussing recent researches that shows American's creativity is declining. They give examples, reasons and offering solutions. In 1958 Eight years old Ted Schwarzrock who complete series of a creativity test by E. Paul Torrance , he was only one of 400 kid who took a newly designed creativity test by E paul Torrance. He impressed psychologist and scholars not only by his creative answers but also his unusual perspective and ability to synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products. Creativity means to produce something original and useful, it requires divergent and convergent thinking skills. Divergent thinking means producing unique ideas and convergent thinking is the process of combining those ideas for the best possible result Torrance test is not the absolute measurement for creativity level but, it has been surprisingly accurate at predicting about children's success in life as adults.

According to Kyung Hee Kim's discovery at college of william and marry, America's creativity stopped raising after 1990, indeed it has been declining since then. Creativity and creative solutions for problems is more than just a way to improve United

States economy. All around the world there are problems seeking a creative solution, such as saving Gulf of Mexico and delivering health care.

There are ideas about why America's creativity is in declin. Some of them suggest that, it is because kids have been spending more time in front of the TV or playing video games rather than engaging in creative activities. Another issue is lack of creativity development is The United States' curriculum. Other countries unlike the US are giving more importance to creativity developments but, United States is sticking with classic test based methods.

American teachers who are overwhelmed by traditional curriculum warn that there is no room in the day for a creativity development class. Kids who can take a class once or twice a week are considered fortunate.

Bronson and Merryman are suggesting in their article for finding a solution to stop the decline first issue has to be looked from a neuroscience perspective. As much as we think creativity occurs on the rights side of the brain it actually occurs on the both side of the brain. While seeking for a solution human mind has tendency too first look for familiarity in problem and seeks known solution but, if answer is not there right side of the brain starts to work to and lead to the "aha!" moment. Now scholars are saying that creativity training is crucial and effective. According to James C. Kaufman a professor at California State University, San Bernardino "creativity can be taught".

There are people who born with ability of divergent thinking but convergent thinking and focussing are necessary too. Of course creativity doesn't occur over a night. Best result occurs when divergent and convergent thinking are being applied to daily life. When fifth graders in Akron, Ohio were asked to come up with an idea to reduce noise in a public library, they spent three forth of thier day for divergentconvergent thinking challenge while working through curricula.

Improvements for creativity are not just limited to school, parents at home play a crucial role as well. Parents are suggested to encourage kids to come up with different solutions for problems rather than excepting or giving them direct answer . Also embodying positives would lead kids to be more creative.

In The Creativity Crisis article, July10,2010 they suggest, creativity doesn't come in vacuum from fourth grade on. Research and study becomes other important matter in developing creativity. While school gets more complex, and kids face information over load creativity suffers. At this point they need to be supported and encouraged, other wise it could lead to drop outs. According to University of Gerogia's Mark Runco, as a result of divergent-convergent thinking those who are better at it tend to be better in handling stress in life and finding alternative solutions.

Creativity have always been important in the US but never fully understood. What we

need to stop declining creativity requires a lot more than hope.