Creativity in classrooms

by Shireen SENADHIRA

Is there creativity in our classrooms? Please look around and see. Do we have facilities for independent study or adventurous enterprise helped by dedicated administrators, teachers and parents?

When families, community and values are strong, schools become strong and then the nation too is strong. It is thus, because, family community, religion and cultural groups expend something much more valuable than money on education of their youth. They have the time and social resources to support a successful learning environment.

Over four or five decades ago, education of students was sustained by five giants of support. They are: families, culture, religion, community and school. Unfortunately at present it has dwindled. The high rate of divorce now, the need for both parents to work out of home for economic reasons has shaken the ability of families to focus and support the education of their children. Job change, housing mobility of low income groups, high cost of living and divorce has destabilized the community. If the trend continues, students will be greatly disadvantaged. This is mostly due to a mismatch of values, experience and resources of home, community and school. When students don't have the support of a family, community, religion and culture, the school is expected to increase its share requiring more money.

Money is an important source but it alone becomes a poor substitute of the above mentioned criteria. Contending with such problems as it is how can creativity play its true part?

In the aspect of education and creativity, the most natural resource is the minds and hearts of our children. Their curiosity and the eagerness to learn that they display and their decisions in difficult and complex issues will decide the future of our country. A great mass of young people, the serious and thoughtful children, the despairing and alienated youth, the aimless, the downtrodden and the affluent, we need them all, if we are to preserve our island and build a future worthy of all persons. This can be arrived at only, by assisting the children to learn deeply and broadly, keeping their creative spark aglow and to guide them as to how it should be done.

How will students make judgments later if they don't get a chance to make judgments now? 'O'Level and 'A' Level students will soon face a world full of controversy in social, national and international as well as personal issues. Cramming up and the spoon fed attitude that prevails in schools now, will not prepare them for life in this difficult world. In their future, the children will be involved making decisions, judgments and choices in their lives, their families and their society. How can they, when they have little or no experience in school to prepare them for such? They will not engage in discussions in controversial matters, hardly face new and complex problems that need solutions and therefore will not take up responsibility and abide by its consequences.

Creativity plays a key role. We need young adults who can think and act creatively, who value human life and are able to discern and decide. They should also know how to communicate and negotiate rather than fight. It is up to us to use our responsibility as guardians of these values to establish learning environments that foster freedom and responsibility. The future of our nation lies on the creative life force in each child. As teachers and parents, we hold the bud of creativity in our hands. It can be easily thwarted. The following statements show this clearly. 'The art teacher gave me a C, so, no more art for me,' or 'I gave up the subject as I had to learn a heap of stuff which has no relevance to my life,' or 'Teacher is so down on my writing, so, I don't want to study.'

We must believe in our youth. If you can or do spend time with them, you will know for certain that they have the capacity to surpass us in original, constructive and resourceful thought and action. But it takes much care and person centered learning to make children blossom. To foster creativity, curiosity should be encouraged not curbed, as well as experimentation with support and constructive criticism. Value should be given to the creative process more than the product and value individual freedom and responsibility rather than dish out predetermined goals of the teacher.

Basic education is a must and a right of every child. At this time the child will learn reading, writing and arithmetic. A common example at this stage in learning and memory is that two plus two make four. The child when playing with his blocks or dolls finds that two and two indeed make four, which is a significant discovery to the child. A child who is learning to read in a laborious way may come across a story or a comic strip one day and will react to it and find that she reads it and will feel the magic power of words to take her into another life and thus she has really learned to read. Also in language learning, if a child is placed in a foreign land, the child will learn to speak the new language with perfect diction without any language instruction. Thus the child would have learnt the language in a significant and meaningful way to her. These examples show that the experiential way of learning is better and fosters creativity too.

In secondary education, tradition, culture with history, geography and literature will be more attractive to students, if they do projects on them, where they have to find out for themselves from books and people allowing their creativity to flourish. Literature can be taught in drama and recitations, where they can research the period comprising the drama and its people. The reading, writing and analysing a play or a piece of literature only by swotting books will be dull in comparison. Thus the freedom to learn their subjects in different ways is portrayed. In the case of history, sites can be visited. This would be a bonus to the students. Even a film about the subject in the case of distances being too far will help immensely than book reading, as these will create lasting impressions on the students.

At the end of a week or end of the project, feedback is necessary. This information helps students to refresh their minds. Listening to the students instead of all the time telling them what to do, helps in confidence building of the students. This frequent evaluation, either individually, in groups or the entire class itself is of great benefit to both parties.

Therefore, in learning, creativity should not be sidetracked but encouraged.

Quite unlike the teachers, who don't like students questioning too much, thinking it as disruptive rather than eagerness.

Learning is the insatiable curiosity that makes the adolescent mind absorb everything he can see, hear or read about a topic. The student who discovers, drawing in from the outside and making it a real part of himself is learning in the experiential way. Memorizing facts and writing it on paper involves the mind only. It has no relevance for the whole person and this is in contrast to meaningful and experiential learning. A simple example of this is a toddler touching a hot cup of milk learns for herself the meaning of 'hot'. This way the child grasps the essential before he understands details. It is intuition too and this experience makes creative leaps. It is associated with the feeling qualities of life.

A child must learn for himself. To this end he must have time for himself.

A village lad has a great advantage over a town student in this respect. In the town, I have seen when school is over, children are bundled into their vehicles. Some are given lunch in the vehicle itself and taken to tuition classes, sports and music or art classes. When they finish and reach home, it is well into the evening. This routine continues and they are left with very little recreation during the week. Then it is wash time, homework, dinner and bed.

A regimental routine indeed. In comparison, the village lad has a long afternoon ahead of him after school. He will fly his kite and run along the grass fields trampling the fresh grass and feel the wind on his face, an exhilarating experience indeed. He will play all evening and then wend his way homewards. When dusk turns to night, he has time see the fireflies dance weaving shining patterns and their magic spells. Later, at home he will do his chores, his homework and sleep a contented lad.

He has time to innovate games and observe nature and become creative with no fuss. Though his counterparts in towns maybe more informed about subjects than him, they may be under pressure, whereas, he is more akin to nature and will learn from it and be healthy.

In a world of rapid change, the concept of lifelong learning takes place knowingly or unknowingly. It is creativity that keeps the learning above the mundane.

The contemporary world we live in has national and local problems.

They are mostly environmental, rights of individuals, wise use of technology, cultural and physical vandalism. To contend with such the concept expressed in the words of the Chinese philosopher, Kuan Tsu of the third century ring true.

'When planning for a year, sow corn.

When planning for a decade, plant trees.

When planning for a lifetime, train and educate men'.

Thus, it is seen that countries that have a good education system where creativity enhances the learning, develop an environment for strong leadership, good quality of life and economic success. Such a state in the nation's schools and educational support predicts the well being of the country.