ID 1430380

What extent do you agree

/disagree with the statement
Society suppresses individuals
natural creativity?
IE2D2 Promoting the Creative Arts
with Young Children

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?

This report consists on a research about several points relate with

creativity inside and outside school, specially Spanish education in order to
answer this question: To what extent do I agree/disagree with the statement
Society suppresses individuals natural creativity?
In order to respond that issue, this essay is divided in three parts:
introduction, body and a conclusion. On one hand, there is an introduction
about the meaning of creativity according to some experts. Shortly
afterwards, essay continues with what Spanish curriculum says about
creativity.
On the other hand, this report continues with the theoretical and
practical side about the importance of role of creativity inside society and
school, trying to solve several questions relate with benefits for child when
he/she grows up in terms of creativity; in addition, the evolution of creativity
and his usefulness when students become adults and also if children use to
learn in the same way focusing on creative spaces are described. Below,
there is a section with some recommendations about some experts about
this topic and what is the role and status of creativity in Italy, focusing on
Reggio Emilia.
In the conclusion, after developing every aspect previously cited we
will try to answer the initial question. In this way, reply will be based on
point of view of pedagogues, comparisons with other countries and
according to Spanish curriculum in terms of education.
Relate with concept of creativity, there are multiple definitions by
several experts. Each one is linked with some topics about creativity as
Caroline Sharp (2004) (1) said in the article Developing young childrens
creativity: what can we learn from research?: imagination, productivity,
originality, problem solving and the ability to produce an outcome of value
and worth . According to Ken Robinson, (2013) (2) I define creativity as
the process of having original ideas that have value. Creativity is about
fresh thinking. It doesn't have to be new to the whole of humanity though
that's always a bonus but certainly to the person whose work it is.
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Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
Creativity also involves making critical judgments about whether what
you're working on is any good, whether it's a theorem, a design or a poem.
According to other expert (13) Creativity is the ability to generate novel
and useful ideas and solutions to everyday problems and challenges. As
reported by Robert E. Franken Creativity is defined as the tendency to
generate or organize ideas, alternatives or possibilities that may be useful
in solving problems, communicating with others and entertaining ourselves
and others.

As stated in Where is creativity by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (3) Creativity

is any act, idea or product that changes an existing domain or that
transforms an existing domain into a new one.
According to Rollo May (12) Creativity is the process of bringing
something new into being. Creativity requires passion and commitment. It
brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life.
The experience is one of heightened consciousness: ecstasy.
Although there a lot of definitions relate with creativity none of them
says that creativity is a talent of some people. In fact, as Kent Robinson
(2013) (2) said Everyone has creative capacities; creativity is possible in
whatever you do, and it can require great discipline and many different
skills.
In order to respond the question about if society suppresses
individuals natural creativity in Spain is important to deal with some
aspects based on several experts like education Act, the role of creativity
inside school, the benefits of creativity, creative spaces inside school and
comparing Spanish education with education in Reggio Emilia (Italy).
In terms of education Act, Spain follows LOMCE since 9 of December
of 2013. It is considered by some experts of education as an erroneous
education Act because it focuses all this attention in mathematics, social
science and languages in order to achieve a better result in exam of PISA. In
fact, with the new education law, the subjects of music and art become
elective subjects. Therefore, the role of creativity is low because of not all
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Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
schools will carry out these modules or although they would choose them,
the number of hours is not enough in order to deal with creativity of
students.
Although in Spain music and artistic subjects are considered less
important respect others, Spanish schools use to foster creativity, if it is
possible through music and artistic expression, in fact, according to one
expert (Fatima Bejerano, 2009) (4) The objective of artistic expression is to
encourage the integral development, perception, creativity, self-esteem,
motor and cognitive development.

Relate with music, according to other professional (J.A.Aunin, 20113)

(5)"Music

education

improves

concentration,

memory,

coordination,

expression, synthesis capacity, empathy and teamwork and, above all, it

contributes to cognitive development".
Regarding role of creativity inside school, Spanish education should
include in curriculum several aspects and methods in order to work the
potential of creativity and creative expression of students. Also, teachers
should have more information respect creativity and how to promote it at
school through techniques and proposals.
For example, not everybody knows that creativity is not just thinking
skills. In fact, there are other elements like psychological skills that are
involved in the process of creativity inside school.
As Caroline Sharp. (2004) (1) describes in an article that is called
Developing young childrens creativity: what can we learn from research?
There are some aspects which are combined in order to foster creativity:

Personality traits: students should have self-confidence, motivation,

curiosity and being able to tolerate ambiguity.
3

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
Emotional processes: students should promote their emotional
fantasy in terms of play, pleasure in challenge, involvement in tasks
and tolerance of anxiety.

Cognitive abilities: a person who is developing creativity should carry

out several strategies in order to be a creative individual. in fact,
some aspects can be cultivate as divergent thinking, ability to
transform thinking, sensitivity to problems, breadth of knowledge and
judgment.
The reality about creativity and spreading of it in Spanish society is

that government does not earmark enough money in order to have a better
education system because of the economic crisis. In fact, administration
carried out several cutbacks - 10,000 millions of euros- in health, education
and social services in 2012. As a matter of fact, according to (HUFFINGTON
POST, 2014) (6) In Spain, the reduction in education spending in 2012 was
6.8%, while the average in the EU was 1.1%.

So, people can imagine that Spanish schools have not enough resources in
order to carry out creativity inside classroom in terms of research, creative
spaces, continuous training of teachers for using new pedagogies and
others alternatives for teaching relate with creativity.
In order to carry out creativity inside school, as Mellou, E. P.3 (1)
(1996) suggests "Young children can be nurtured through educational
settings in three respects: the creative environment, creative programmes
and creative teachers and ways of teaching":

The creative environment: the importance of playing as a method in

order to promote creativity. In fact, according to this author
"Creativity and play require imagination, insight, problem solving,
divergent thinking, the ability to experience emotion and to make
choices." Imaginative games as role play and also free choice of
activities are very useful for working creativity. Other suggestions for
the creative environment could be size of the classroom and other
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Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
spaces, the quality of equipment and also materials in order to
stimulate creativity.

Creative programmes: Mellou suggest in his article that not all art
activities serve to enhance creativity, in fact the problem is that there
is not enough research about other alternatives and other areas that
can help to foster creativity in the classroom apart from arts.

Creative teachers and ways of teaching: Mellou says in the article that
creative teachers and ways of teaching are key components for
students in order to carry out creativity because they can encourage
creativity by asking open-ended questions, tolerating ambiguity,
modeling

creative

thinking

and

behavior,

encouraging

experimentation and persistence, praising children who provide

unexpected answers and so on.
A study (Ministry tools resource center) (7) confirms that to be a creative
person inside classroom is very useful and offer some benefits: challenge,
relevancy,

enlightenment,

attention,

thirst,

involvement,

vigor

and

excellence.

On one hand, an important benefit of creativity is challenge because

student can promote his/her critical thinking in order to change his/her
situation and improving it. For this reason creativity is also a relevancy
aspect because student has opportunity to analyze what they are learning
and what they want to learn and how they can do it. In addition, creativity is
as an enlightenment fact because pupils are able to transform content
making it more attractive in order to learn as better as possible having into
account quality of teaching.

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
On the other hand, students stimulate attention and thirst due to
when they are interested in something they want to learn more about it. Just
as fostering involvement, vigor and excellence in order to learn being
creative people.
However, acquiring creative side of students is a long process which
requires a lot of patient and dedication because creativity -as is described in
the first part of this essay- is related with imagination, productivity,
originality, problem solving and the ability to produce an outcome of value
and worth . Also, according to Loris Malaguzzi P.77 (8): Creativity becomes
more visible when adults try to be more attentive to the cognitive processes
of children than to the results they achieve in various fields of doing and
understanding. For this reason, analyzing creativity when people are adults
is easier than if they are young.
Besides this, not all students use to expand upon creativity in the
same way inside classroom because as the first part of essay describes,
there are some components of creativity which are linked in each person in
order to cultivate it: Personality traits, emotional processes and cognitive
abilities.

For this reason, teachers should promote several spaces for

promoting creativity of students. For example, some innovative spaces are

designed by Steve Wheeler (2012) (9) in order to learn and developing
creativity:

The Camp Fire: This is a social learning space where students try
to solve their personal and academic problems with the rest of
children.

The Cave: It is a personal learning spaces enable them to reflect on

their learning, and create their own learning pathways.

The Sandpit: Sandpits are places where young people can try out
new ideas and experiment without fear of failure. They can take risks
and ask the 'what if' questions, in a psychologically safe environment.

The Watering Hole: Informal spaces where students can gather

spontaneously, either inside or outside the school.Children can meet

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
at the foot of a stairwell or under a tree to discuss anything, whether
it is school related or not.

The Mountain Top: It is a place where young people can share their
work and ideas with other people. They can publish or broadcast
them in a public performance space, or use blogs, podcasts, videos
and other technology tools to share their content with their peers and
the world.

Also, other spaces inside school for stimulating creativity of students could
be: library area, music area, a planting area, a wildlife area, a quiet area
with seating and so on.
By contrast, the role and status of creativity in Reggio Emilia (Italy)
inside education is different because of role of creativity is one of the most
important parts of the educational curriculum. In fact, Reggio Emilia offers
one of the most successful pedagogies of the world, therefore, this model is
being adapted in many countries including Sweden, America, Denmark and
England. In particular, the pedagogy of Reggio Emilia is being adapted in
England to suit different pre-school settings and groups have formed across
the country to promote Malaguzzis philosophy. In fact, some British schools
are changing the classrooms, creating new spaces of learning which are
adapted to needs of children as well as fostering creativity through playing
and arts, among others.
As Carolina Rinaldi (2006) (10) p. 47 said in a book wrote by Vea
Vecchi Art and creativity in Reggio Emilia there are the hundred languages
that children use to put in practice in order to express their knowledge and
developing creativity: mathematical language, scientific language, visual
language and so on. In order to amplify and clarify this information, Claudia
Giudici- in the same book and page- Languages are sources of knowledge
of child which uses to represent, communicate and express his/her thoughts
in one or more languages.
In order to promote creativity, schools in Reggio Emilia use to
consider play as a central role in learning. So, activities like sculpture,
dramatic play, dancing, drawing activities, puppetry, shadow play, painting
music, ceramics and construction are considered as a play where children

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
expand upon unconsciousness their creative skills and also learning content
at the same time.

In order to justify play as a central role in learning, according to

Chavez-Eakle, R (2009) (11) "Play is especially important because it
involves the basic components of the creative process such as combining
and generating new possibilities, experimentation, exploration of the limits
of reality and fantasy". In addition, play is related with health personality. In
fact, playing can be a success or a failure depending on methodology,
materials, assessment, motivation and so on. For example, if it is a good
session children feel calm and comfortable, however if session is disrupted
children use to express deep distress. In the same way, if the environment is
too strict or if playing is devalued the child experiences frustrations that
torture the self. That is why as the article said that "Is fundamental to reevaluate education policies regarding play. If play is prevented in order to
gain additional time for meeting curriculum standards, testing, or to avoid
interactions among students, this could have a harmful and negative impact
on childrens personality formation, the improvement of their creative
potential, and their mental health."
But, it would not possible without participation of children, teachers
and parents. In fact, parents and families work with the educators providing
information from their observation of the childs learning. In a certain way,
they contributing to the social and cultural growth of the school.
As suggestions, according to Winnicott (1971) (11) the Development
of Creativity is related to early life experiences, particularly the caregivers
attunement and adaptations to the childs needs. If the adult is attuned,
children become aware of their own capacity to create, able to experience
their feelings as their own.
In addition teachers would have to consider that they should act as a
guide during all process of teaching in order to foster the expansion of
creativity. In fact, they should have to promote activities according to the
8

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
needs of students and their interest for achieving motivation through
learning new things. Also, children use to imitate

all that teachers and

families use to do because they act as a mirror of themselves, so teachers

should demonstrate the importance of critical thinking, the importance of
learning and how creativity is useful for them.
In order to conclude this essay, reviewing several points that have
developed in the document before is important for answering that question:
What extent do I agree /disagree with the statement Society suppresses
individuals natural creativity?

After developing this research about the importance of creativity in general

and also Spanish education, I consider that Spanish society suppresses
individuals natural creativity. There are some reasons that can justify my
opinion.
On one hand, Spanish government does not earmark money in order
to have a better education system because of the economic crisis. As a
matter of fact, the reduction in education spending in 2012 was 6,8% while
the average in the EU was 1.1%. Therefore, Spanish society cannot research
in creativity if they do not have economical resources in order to foster it. In
addition, subjects that involve the creativity of children in education Actmusic and artistic subjects- are considered elective modules. Therefore,
although children would chose that subjects, the number of hours is not
enough in order to develop creativity of students.

On the other hand, teachers who are considered key components for
students- are not trained for designing activities and spaces to carry out
creativity. In fact, not all teachers are able to encourage creativity by asking
open-ended questions, tolerating ambiguity, modeling creative thinking and
behavior, encouraging experimentation and persistence, praising children
who provide unexpected answers and so on.

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
In order to improve this situation, Spanish government and educators
should invest about what is creativity, the importance of role of creativity
inside society and school; benefits for child when he/she grows up in terms
of creativity; the evolution of creativity focusing on when students become
adults and also if children use to learn in the same way; creative spaces,
what experts say about it and comparing role of creativity in Spain with
other countries- Reggio Emilia, Italy-. In fact, if they would aware of the
importance of creativity they would foster it inside schools and society.
I would like to finish this essay with a sentences about creativity.
According to Edward de Bono(14) Creativity is a great motivator because it
makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that
there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort
of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more
interesting.

References:
1- Sharp, C. (2004). Developing young childrens creativity: what can we
learn

from

research?

Issue

32.

[Online].

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/55502/55502.pdf).

(Accessed

(URL
13

January 2015)
2- Robinson, K (2013). To encourage creativity, Mr Gove, you must first
understand

what

it

is.

[Online].

(URL

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/17/toencourage-creativity-mr-gove-understand) Theguardian. (Accessed 14

January 2015)
3- Csikszentmihalyi,

M.

Where

is

creativity?

[Online].

(URL

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2013/cs7601_spring/papers/csiks
zentmihalyi-whereiscreativity.pdf). (Accessed 10 January 2015)

10

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
4- Bejerano, F. (2009, June). La expresin plstica como fuente de
creatividad The artistic expression as a source of creativity. [Online].
(URL http://www.eumed.net/rev/ced/04/fbg.htm). (Accessed 8 January
2015)

5- J.A.Aunin (2013, November).

Newspaper: El Pas. Artes y filosofa

pasan a segundo plano Arts and philosophy are less important. [Online]. (URL
http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2013/11/26/actualidad/13854914
52_200770.html). (Accessed 16 January 2015)

6- Anonymous. Recortes en educacin: Espaa, a la cabeza de los

pases de la UE donde ms caen los presupuestos (In Spanish)
Cutbacks in Education: Spain, the first country of UE that reduces
more

budgets.

El

Huffington

post.

[Online].

(URL

http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2014/11/13/recortes-educacion-espanaue_n_6149902.html#). (Accessed 13 November 2014).

7- Anonymous. Ministry Tools Resource Center. Bible Teaching Ministry

Training & Resources. Bible Teachers Training & Teaching Resources
for Sunday school. The Benefits of Creativity in the Classroom.
[Online]. (URL http://mintools.com/preview-tt9.htm). (Accessed 16
January 2015)

8- Malaguzzi, L. (1993). History, ideas and basic philosophy: an

interview with Lella Gandini In: Edwards, C., Gandini, L. and Forman,
G.The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia Approach.
Second edn. Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing.
9- Wheeler,

(2012).

Creative

learning

spaces.

[Online].

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/creative-learningspaces.html). (Accessed 16 January 2015)

11

(URL

Promoting the Creative Arts with Young Children: Society suppresses

individuals natural creativity?
10-Vecchi, A. (2013). Arte y creatividad en Reggio Emilia Art and
creativity in Reggio Emilia. The role of workshops in childhood
Morata.
11-Chvez, R. The Relevance of Creativity in Education. [Online]. (URL
http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Journals/spring2010/therelev
anceofcreativityineducation/). (Accessed 13 January 2015)

12-Trautman, M (2010, November). Creative Bliss. Top 10 creativity definitions.

[Online].

(URL

http://celestra.ca/top-10-creativity-definitions/).

(Accessed 10 January 2015)

13-

Anonymous. Creative at work. 'The ability to display productive

originality'.

[Online].

http://www.unfortu.net/~rafe/links/creativity.htm).

(URL
(Accessed

10

January 2015)

14-

De

Bono,

E.

BrainyQuote.

[Online]

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/creativity.html)
18 January 2015)

12

(URL

(Accesed