Disposition 6

Inventiveness

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk - Thomas Edison

How do we encourage, teach and reward creativity and imagination in our schools?

We encourage creativity firstly by giving students opportunities to exercise and use it. If we use worksheets or other structured assignments all the time, students won't have to make their own choices or decisions. I think there are many activities that could be used to teach creativity. Personally, I would start with listening to and being aware of the body. Bringing students to a field or forest and asking them to go where they want. Give them time to get lost and have a sound that they have to find at the end of the time. Through this experience students would independently seek something, a rare occurrence in a classroom. Encouraging creativity and imagination is as simple as speaking and connecting with people. Asking them how they feel, what they want to continue learning, what makes them excited, what direction they are taking projects, etc. Each person has many capabilities, we just have to give students opportunities to exercise them.

How important is creativity as a skill for the 21st Century?

Unless we want the world to stay the way it is forever, people need to come up with ideas. Even if things stay the same, our living conditions and lives would change in a negative way. Solutions and new ideas require creativity and passion. Yes, answers can be found when people don't have a burning passion for finding them. However, I believe that the best answers are found when people have a connection or passion for what they're doing. They would be more likely to go one step further or look for one more option when they already have something satisfactory.

As a future music educator, I am aware that other countries in the world do better in the areas of reading, science, and math. As a nation, we certainly need to do well in those areas, but instead of seeing those topics as the main commodity in the world, we need to step up our education in the arts. With creativity and basic skill, you can do anything. With a higher training and level of skill in a concrete area, you can do those few things very well. In order for our children to be successful, they need to be creative and skilled. The rest will follow.