Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
– Scott Adams, American author and cartoonist

Cindy Foley’s Ted Talk, “Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist?” is about so much more than art. It’s fundamentally about creativity and how adults inspire or stifle children’s creative inclinations. She discusses how children’s scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking have been declining in the United States since the 1990’s and why that may be. She then paints a picture of ways to change that trend. “Don’t kill the ideas,” she declares. We must “allow educators to develop centers for creativity where ideas are king and curiosity reigns.”

Caitlin Lynch, in an article that provides the foundation for an Out of the Box Training, “Nurturing Creativity in Children,” references Cindy Foley’s belief that in order to support creativity, educators have to learn to tolerate ambiguity. “Our bodies and brains fight not knowing,” Foley explains, but we have to learn to be ok with uncertainty, turning our uncomfortable feelings into curiosity about what might happen next.

Lynch writes, “Our world is complex and growing more so every day. It is no longer enough to shape learners who know. For our students to be truly successful they must also be brave in the face of not-knowing. Developing bravery — or ‘comfort with ambiguity’ as we often call it — demands intentionality on the part of educators. Bravery is a skill (like creativity) — it can be learned, but it must be practiced and the sooner we start the better.”

The Out of the Box Training supports educators in reflecting on ways they can more fully nurture the kind of creativity that comes from open-ended experiences with no pre-determined outcomes.

Both Foley and Lynch encourage early care and education professionals to honestly reflect on the materials, tools, and support they can offer children to more effectively foster their authentic creative expression.