Is There a Creativity Crisis?

In 2010, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman challenged us with the article, “The Creativity Crisis” (Newsweek). They reminded us of Torrance’s creativity assessments and how he and his team followed students tested in 1958 for the next 50 years.  In 2010, Kyung Hee Kim, a researcher at the College of William and Mary, used the Torrance scores of over 300,000 children and adults to focus on how our children today compare in creativity to those of the past. He found that the scores of children tested from 1990 on were declining.  While a number of other countries are focusing on development of creativity in their children, researchers fear that America’s insistence on standardization is hurting our students and our nation’s future. According to the authors, “While our creativity scores decline unchecked, the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses.”  Bringing creativity and problem solving into all subject areas will help, as will considering such ideas as choice-based art and bringing STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art & design, and mathematics) into the projects and activities of our youngest students.