Imagination

Can you teach someone to be creative? Often, creative abilities are usually thought of as skills that people just seem to have naturally. However, the more time I spent with Molly the more I think creativity is a skill, like math, reading, athletics, or anything else (of course people might have some positive or negative genetic predisposition to learning any skill). In school, there are specific classes on auditory creativity (music) and visual creativity (art), but there are no classes that focus on mental creativity. As parents throughout the country complain when music and art classes are closed, they should be equally upset that mental creativity classes don’t exist at all.

Although people might think that creativity isn’t something you can teach, everyday Molly is proving that theory wrong. Of course, all kids are creativity, but Lindy and I have actively tried to help Molly explore her creative instincts. Molly, like most children, loves storied, but more than books, Molly loves “imagination stories”, which are made up on the spot. I used to tell Molly imagination stories before she could talk and now we tell them together. Sometimes, I tell the whole story and I stretch my imaginative skills as an example of what she can do. Other times, she will tell almost the entire story. And when she gets stuck I might ask “did the people in the story go somewhere?” And I can see her thinking hard, pushing her brain to find the best possible answer. It is like a body builder who knows that last rep is the hardest, but it will help the most. I imagine her little brain straining to create that new idea and when she does it will stay with her and be a building block for the next idea.

Last night, at dinner, she invented a game called “Sam-I-am”, based on Green Eggs and Ham, in which she would be Sam-I-am, and ask me if I wanted a taco with a mouse or on a house or on a boat or with a goat. As impressed as I was that she remembered the book well enough to repeat what Sam-I-am said, I was overwhelmed with pride when she asked “Would you eat your taco with…your soda?” She stepped outside what was in her memory and tapped into something new. And I could tell she wanted to think of more things that weren’t in the book (which she did). She was proud of herself too, which makes immersion in any skill possible.

Creativity is not only good for telling stories and playing games, but it is a core component of some of the most useful skills that people, families, and societies need. Creativity is the basis of problem solving, inventiveness, philosophy, architecture, research, and most of the skills that can effectively contribute to progress.