You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
– Maya Angelou

In an online article called “Research Suggests We’re All Getting Less Creative and Scientists Think They Know Why,” Jessica Stillman writes:

“The Torrance Test has been used for decades to evaluate creativity. That has allowed researchers to track how well scores on the test line up with achievement, and the results are clear: The Torrance Test is actually a better predictor of real-world success than traditional IQ tests. There’s only one hitch. Scores on the test may be scientifically valid but they have also apparently been creeping down for decades.

“A researcher at the University of William and Mary analyzed 300,000 Torrance Test scores since the ’50s. She found that creativity scores began to nosedive in 1990. She concluded that we’re now facing a ‘creativity crisis.'”

An Out of the Box Training, “Nurturing Creativity in Children,” was designed to help early educators deal with the creativity crisis. “By intentionally respecting not just the needs, but also the strengths of young learners, we can help to foster the intellectual skills of creativity, curiosity, and bravery…skills which will help them succeed, not just in preschool or kindergarten, but throughout their lives,” writes Caitlin (Cat) Lynch, in the article accompanying the Out of the Box Training. Connecting creativity to curiosity and even bravery, Lynch invites early educators to think deeply about how we foster creative expression through the activities and materials we offer for children’s creative explorations. She states, “How we work with children… is just as important as why.”

Lynch urges us to see children as “strong, independent individuals capable of amazingly creative and complex thinking.” Her practice involves validating children’s many different uses of the same materials. The Out of the Box Training invites educators to explore Lynch’s approach so that even when faced with constraints beyond our control, we can find ways to ensure the activities and materials we offer children for creative expression are rich with meaning and possibilities.