On the Importance of Creativity
By Ashfaq Ishaq, Ph D, FRSA Executive Director, International Child
Art Foundation
 "The mission of the ICAF is to prepare children
for a creative and cooperative future. Creativity can be encouraged
in a variety of ways, and the arts are a dynamic channel to foster
a child’s creativity."
Creativity is a quintessential attribute of human beings. When combined with
our ability to record and benefit from accumulated knowledge, it makes us the
highest-order species on the planet. People throughout history have envisioned
their surroundings in new and instructive ways, producing ideas, inventions
and works of art that have radically changed life and added to our understanding
of the planet and its place in the universe.
Diminishing creativity
We humans have not yet achieved our full creative potential, however, primarily
because every child’s creativity is not properly nurtured. The critical
role of imagination, discovery and creativity in a child’s education
is only beginning to come to light, and even within the educational community,
many still do not appreciate or realize its vital importance.
 Research on creativity documents a so-called “fourth grade slump” across
cultures. Briefly, these data indicate that when children begin school, their
level of creativity is evident and often flourishing. By the time they reach
the fourth grade, however, they have become more conforming, less likely to
take risks, and less playful or spontaneous than in earlier years. These trends
continue throughout the school years and into adulthood. Hence the risk of
diminishing creativity faced by children needs to be addressed by adults, if
humans are to attain their creative potential. Today’s children must
be given the chance to develop their creativity to the fullest extent possible;
not only for the benefit of their own future but also for the communities we
all inhabit.
Intervention
Traditional schooling and parenting do not generally foster a child’s
creativity. Limits are placed on children’s creativity by educational
systems that encourage conformity and imitation in learning rather than spontaneity
and creative imagination. Moreover, standardized testing captures only the
ability of students to provide “correct” answers to questions,
without rectifying the thinking process that results in “incorrect” answers
or accepting ambiguous but equally valid answers. Even those teachers and parents
who do recognize the importance of creativity, often lack the tools and training
to encourage a child’s imagination and discovery.
In the old economic systems of the past millennium, creativity was ‘exogenous’ or
purely innate and not everyone needed to be creative. Even in the industrial
age, the focus was on productivity, not creativity. However, in the economy
of the future, creativity must be diffused and every individual must learn
how to enhance his or her creativity. It is not surprising that today the importance
of creativity is increasingly emphasized by studies in disciplines ranging
from anthropology to organizational theory and management.
But a child is almost always introduced only to the learning process (by
schooling) and to the socializing process (by family) but not to the creative
process.
This is the role for the International Child Art Foundation (ICAF) and other
such national and local organizations.
The mission of the ICAF is to prepare children for a creative and cooperative
future. Creativity can be encouraged in a variety of ways, and the arts are
a dynamic channel to foster a child’s creativity. Moreover, collaborative
art projects (such as murals) demonstrate the power of collaborative creativity.
But the arts need to be more broadly defined than it has been in the past,
incorporating the digital arts and new media made possible by the digital revolution.
 Internet
The Internet is already the most powerful medium for communication, information,
education, transactions and community building. However, the full promise
of the digital revolution lies in the blossoming of a worldwide creativity
revolution. The Internet can provide a dynamic platform where the use of
knowledge, through new forms of learning, allows individuals and groups to
attain their full creative potential. To bring about a creativity revolution,
however, the Internet’s potential as a creativity playground for children
needs to be properly harnessed.
The arts
But digital playgrounds (being developed by ICAF) do not mean that the hands-on
or traditional arts are ignored. Actually, the arts will assume a greater
significance in the economy of the future, if the future economy is creativity-driven.
Many children, their teachers and parents already realize what lies ahead.
One evidence of this is that over a million children worldwide participate
in the ICAF Arts Olympiad, which is launched every four years. The Arts Olympiad
starts with national competitions on a universal theme and culminates in
an international celebration of children’s creativity and imagination
held on The National Mall in Washington, DC.
Creativity revolution
How can we bring about a creativity revolution? Parallel to building a culture
of peace, creating a creativity revolution requires involvement of children.
According to UNESCO, “the encouragement of creativity from an early
age is one of the best guarantees of growth in a healthy environment of self-esteem
and mutual respect—critical ingredients for building a culture of peace.”
The choice we face is not simply to be or not to be creative. But it is whether
we must encourage the next generation to be creative, and how best we go about
doing so. A creativity revolution begins with each individual—learning
how to be creative and supporting the catalysts of change.
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