Carry It Forward: The Creative Personality

Can you remember your first grade teacher? How about second? Or third? What do you remember about these people? Perhaps they were crabby old women, or mean unfriendly men.

Or maybe there was one teacher who you will never forget. A teacher who taught you the alphabet or colors in creative ways that you can still remember today. Most likely that teacher is still teaching today and I'd be willing to bet they are one of the happiest people you'll ever meet.

Why? Because he or she values creativity. 

In the article, The Creative Personality, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about the idea that, "creativity is a central source in our lives", and that "when we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life" (Csikszentmihalyi). I value creativity because, like the article says, when we are creative it gives us a feeling of fulfillment that almost no other situation can.

But what about teaching creativity in our schools? Are our teachers teaching our children the values we want them to learn? If our teachers do not value and teach creativity in the classroom, our children's creativity may not survive past adolescence.

Creativity is a key value that all teachers should possess, especially those who teach young children. If children are instilled at an early age with the idea that creativity is a key to living a full life, they'll teach their children and their children will teach their children and the cycle will continue.

I view creativity as an important aspect in the development of our nations younger generations, and I plan on basing the structure of my future teaching career on creativity. By valuing creativity as a future teacher, I'll be able to encourage the creativity of our children step by step, while at the same time teaching them to value it as well.

For example, if children are taught at an early age to nurture and experiment with their creativity, they'll experience first hand what it feels like to have a sense of fulfillment. From then on, they'll realize that being creative is what makes them have this feeling of being fulfilled, and they will continue to explore their creativity as they grow older. With whole generations focusing on their creative sides, the current creativity crisis will start to decrease and more people will get to experience the feeling of fulfillment.

You may be wondering if there is any hope for those of you past childhood to explore your creative side and the answer is a big yes! I challenge you to incorporate creativity into your everyday lives and find something that gives your life a fuller feeling.

Until next time,
Rachel.