You’re Wrong! If you think your child is not creative
Mukul Dixit
5 Aug, 21 · 4 min read
What is Creativity?
“I am not a creative person”. How many times do you use this phrase when you are given a task which requires a little imagination. But you are wrong; you don’t know what creativity is. Maybe because when you were young someone told you that if you can’t draw you are not creative.
Creativity is the ability to imagine something and acting on it to make it real. It includes two things, Thinking & Producing.
You woke up this morning, went to the kitchen to cook something, saw almost no ingredients but was still able to make something yummy for kids — that’s creative.
You saw a “0” printed in place of “8”, you took a black pen and changed that “0” to “8”. No reprinting. Paper saved. Ink saved — that’s creative
We all have done this, right. Creativity is intrinsic. Every human is born with it. Each of these examples required the use of imagination and experience to apply a creative solution to a problem or challenge. We’ve got to stop selling ourselves short. We artificially hold ourselves back by giving up on imaginative thinking just because we’re not portrait-artists.
Artistic ability includes skills and talent to create fine works of art: painting, drawing, sculpting, musical composition, etc. Creativity ability is the skill and talent to use our imagination to create and solve. All better artists are creative. But all creatives are not artists.
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Why are we talking so much about creativity today?
We are more global than ever. The marketplace is changing rapidly, and in the words of Intel Chairman, Andrew Grove, companies must “Adapt or Die!” Every organisation needs people — at every level — who can bring new ideas to the table.
According to LinkedIn analysis, Creativity tops the list of — Most In-Demand Skills — today. And it is limited to design-related roles but across all business roles, from software engineering to HR.
According to a Global study by IBM which included 1500 CEOs across 60 countries and 33 industries; Creativity is the — Most Crucial Skill for Future Success.
World Economic Forum’s — Future of Jobs Survey 2020- lists Innovation, Problem Solving, and Creativity among the top 5 skills.
We are living in the Creative Age. Creativity is not only important for an individual but also for a community, nation, and the world.
The Global Creativity Index (GCI) report shows that Creativity has a direct correlation with a nation’s prosperity. Countries that support creativity rank high in GCI and are happier, more healthy, have high living standards, have low inequality, have high levels of education, have more entrepreneurs, and have high GDP. Countries and their economies could only succeed if they are driven by innovation and creativity. India ranks 99 in the GCI.
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The Creativity Gap
Firstly, you shouldn’t doubt that creativity is a skill but not some god gifted thing. So if this is so natural, it must be available in abundance. Then why are we crying about a lack of creative skills?
Because our education system is killing it!!!
A test was conducted on kids of different age groups starting from age 3 up to age 15. It was the same test that was designed for recruiting engineers & scientists at NASA. Here are the findings of these tests:
Test results amongst 5-year-olds: 98%
Test results amongst 10-year-olds: 30%
Test results amongst 15-year-olds: 12%
The same test is given to 280,000 adults: 2%
“What we have concluded,” wrote George Land, who conducted the test, “is that non-creative behaviour is learned.”
Image: NASA Creativity Test Pass Rates
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What can we do to bridge this gap?
The good news is that Creativity can be taught. Everything can be achieved if the process is followed. And processes can be taught through practice. Ideas can be generated through a Process; Actions can be executed through a Process; Users can be studied through a Process; Product can be developed through a process.
If we want to bridge the creativity gap, we need to take measures where it will take the least effort, will impact the most, and will sustain long-term i.e. kids. We just need to avoid, as parents, teachers, and schools, becoming creative killers. We need to engage each kid in the process of creation, by providing them with maximum opportunities, resources, and support to start creating something.
Education can be the key driver to achieve this. By changing the focus
From Outcomes to Process.
From Memorising to Making.
From Teaching to Mentoring.
From Information to Imagination.
From Content to Skills.
From Subjects to Projects.
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Makershala is a Learning by Making ecosystem for kids from age 8-16 to help them discover their interests, develop future skills and deepen conceptual understanding. Makershala follows the Project Based Learning approach as its way of teaching in which kids work on authentic, real life & personally meaningful projects.
Kids work on these projects in different educational settings, namely; self-learning; online 1:4 Peer to Peer with a mentor; or in a school. Projects are categorized in different interest segments like Robotics, Coding, Electronics, 3D Printing, Animations, Photography, Machine Learning, Astronomy and many more.
Each project is mapped with classroom concepts, 21st century skills, UN sustainable development goals and interests/careers to not only focus on holistic development of a child but help them identify their calling by giving them exposure to problems that exist in the real world.
Why Project-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning has the potential to solve many of the learning problems we see today beyond foundational literacy.
Ownership: Learners have complete ownership on what they need to know to solve a problem and come up with the best solution in the best way. It can be a concept or a software tool or a skill. Kids involved in projects are never required to be told to study.
Interdisciplinary: Unlike traditional learning where subjects are taught in silos and learners develop a perception of liking or disliking a subject. In project based learning, the given problem is supreme and it may require to know something from maths, science and history together.
Experiential learning: We generally retain 75% of what we do as opposed to only 5% of what we hear and 10% of what we read, hence PBL helps kids retain what they learn.
Lifelong learning: The most important gift that PBL gives to its learners is to make them lifelong learners as this is the most required skill to lead a good life, personally & professionally.
Skills & Knowledge balance: Project-based learning doesn’t focus too much on memorizing information, rather it equally demands practising life skills to be able to do better in projects.
How Makershala Works
Parents and Kids who wish to start their journey with Makershala, are suggested to pick one interest area of the child and then choose a plan.
Parents and Kids after enrolling in a course based on their interest are assigned a batch. Each batch has 3-4 learners and 1 mentor.
Each course has 6 guided projects and 1 challenge project.
During the project, formative assessments are conducted to evaluate learner’s knowledge & skills.
On completion of a project parents and kids get a learning report which indicates the skills and knowledge developed/displayed by them.
Kids also build their portfolio which showcases problems solved, solutions created, skills developed, knowledge acquired and technologies learnt.
Kids earn rewards in the form of badges, points and coins for their performance in a project, course and overall.
Kids are maneuvered to take up courses and projects from different learning segments to gain more clarity on their interests. This eventually helps them in picking up a career.
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