How We Can Help Our Children Become More Creative?

By John Buckland

How many times have we heard young people, parents, family members and even teachers say: “I’m not really a very creative person” or “I’ve got very little imagination when it comes to doing things like that?” Regrettably, much ability is wasted when people keep telling themselves they’re not creative.

It is the issue of creativity that this article explores. No matter what age we are we should make sure we don’t short-change those we love and care about.

For several years now teachers at all levels in our schools have become aware of eight key aspects of learning, all of which can benefit by the application of creativity. These also apply to parents and home-schoolers..


These include the need
•    To promote a sense of cultural identity and equality through studies of our different cultures and our heritage.

•    To promote language, creative and aesthetic development in young people to promote practical skills and abilities for living in a society where individuals may have to train and re-train for several different occupations during their lifetimes, with lengthy periods of non-employment in between.

•    To take responsibility for their own and others’ health and well being, to understand, appreciate and manage science, fast-changing technology and caring for the environment for the betterment of their community and society.

This is a tall order. However, parents and other care-givers can all play a part in increasing the opportunities for their children as future adults to develop the widest possible range of creative capacities. Learning is increasingly becoming recognized as a holistic series of experiences to promote every facet of growth of each child’s personality.

It is useful here to recognize the work of an outstanding American educator, Professor Jack Fraenkel who developed a model for planning a series of learning activities. Fraenkel works on the premise that the best learning occurs when different senses are used by the learner. My experience is using a range of learning materials such as he lists is that learning is greatly increased when we combine a number of senses simultaneously..

An illustration of such learning occurred when I was teaching fourth formers at an Auckland college. A blind student named David assigned to my class of 35 pupils arrived one day for an art lesson supported by two mates. I had previously set up a large model of a mediaeval Norman castle for a Social Studies lesson on a table at the entrance to my classroom.

It suddenly occurred to me that David couldn’t see the model, so I took five minutes of the time when the rest of the class set up for a painting lesson. I took hold of his hands and gently moved them so he could touch the castle battlements, the drawbridge over the moat, the portcullis, the keep, the living quarters for the soldiers and the wall scaling ladders, explaining what each structure was. I had to leave him and admit I forgot about him. He spent the whole period running his fingers back and forth over the wooden model using his well developed tactile skills.

Six months later after David was transferred to the Blind Institute for more specialist care, I saw him in Queen Street, Auckland carrying a saxophone so went up to him, patted his shoulder and asked him if he remembered me. Immediately he replied smiling: “Of course I do, sir.” He talked about his new love, learning to play the saxophone and then suddenly said “Do you remember that day when you showed me the castle? That was the most exciting thing I did in my life.”

Learning then is enhanced by using different senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. How much more enriching would his experience have been if I had spent more time with him? In his model Fraenkels sets out a list of resources on which we can draw as parents or teachers (Intake Resources). The more varied these are for learners the better. He explains that we need to set up learning activities which help children organize their thinking. (see the Organizational column). He goes on to suggest that real insights into human behavior and real knowledge do not occur until learners have moved to create or demonstrate their understandings, feelings and values in new ways.

If, for example a child has recorded his or her ideas on a chart or made a written summary, it is important for the learner to apply the ideas to another situation or to create a new product. This could be in the form of a poem, a drawing, a group mural or a 3-D model in the sand tray, or a computer presentation.

When my student teachers at the former North Shore Teachers College had gathered and sort out information about the activities of traditional Maori in their fortified hilltop pa, we worked together to create a large co-operative mural. (The Demonstrative Stage)

We took the composition we had created to the Auckland War Memorial Museum where we had arranged to meet teachers with their classes of intermediate school students on an education visit. After pupils shared their ideas about what different members of the iwi and whanau were doing in the mural, whether hunting, making hooks, fishing, drying the catch on racks, practicing a haka, plaiting flax, peeling kumara or digging a hangi, we set up the pupils in pairs for a follow-up activity to create something new to demonstrate their new understandings. (The Creative Stage.)

They could choose from materials we had collected previously and stored in cartons – driftwood, stones, wooden sticks, lengths of supple jack, flax and shells of different shapes and sizes. The pupils were given time to study the exhibits of Maori artifacts on display in the Museum and then set about constructing their own. The children proudly took their taonga or treasures back to the classroom and shared their experiences by demonstrating how their artifact was made and used. It was a critical step for the teachers to take by helping their pupils to share the outcomes of their innovations. They certainly learned the challenges Maori craftsmen must have faced to create such remarkable tools and equipment. My college students discussed the success of the learning experiences they had provided and reflected on how many different senses the children had used.

What Constitutes Creativity?

When we understand what is involved in becoming creative, this should help us move comfortably through the stages or steps in the Fraenkel model.

•    It is the showing of imagination as well as routine skill to reach new heights. These higher levels may be attained through understanding a skill really well and how to build on it. For example, if learners cut out from thin cardboard a silhouette figure of an Aborigine man carrying an imitation emu’s head tied on the end of a stick these could be manipulated on a shadow screen or overhead projector moving colored cellophane filters to create sunsets or storms, with a pupil creating and telling a story of how the hunter would move, imitating the strutting walk of the birds until within striking distance with a concealed spear.

•    Creativity involves providing freedom to let the spirit move in areas of imagination. If children are given the chance to create a dance to express ideas about an issue such as saving a stranded whale by taking part in a concert performance later, this could be a rewarding experience for all concerned. Such simple dramatizations may stay long in a young person’s memory.

•    It involves doing something of significance. A letter set out on computer by a young person on an issue important to that individual could be emailed for publication in a newspaper.


•    Being creative begins with the proposition that nothing is as it appears. It does not demand absolute originality. It could take the form of a fresh application of an old principle like a centuries old musical composition being played to a new tempo. “Roll over, Beethoven!”

•    Creativity involves open-mindedness, never rejecting any idea that comes into a learner’s head as outlandish or “way out”. Ordinary people may see such things as fanciful and even nonsense. Innovators may see unusual ideas as solid possibilities


We need to accept the heredity can give some people more creative capacity than others, but all can increase their capacity by striving long and hard. The ingenious Inventor Thomas Alda Edison once said that “being creative is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”

•    The essence of creativity is that what is generated should be new and expand new possibilities.


What are the Characteristics of a Creative Child or Adult?

An understanding of these traits should enable us as parents, teachers or caregivers to assist the growth of the creative potential of our young ones. It’s worthwhile starting by seeking to identify each learner’s individual strengths and interests. This will enable us to reaffirm the self-esteem of each young person.

•    Tests show that very few people are without the instinct to be creative. Even the physically impaired among us can be capable of extraordinary mental skills such as painting by foot or mouth. Many of us are not as creative as we could be because we are told we are not the creative type. I always remember my English master saying “Buckland, you’ve got as much chance of passing School Certificate as a snowball in hell.”

•    Everybody can be a genius while asleep as the human mind demonstrates its amazing capacity to portray highly imaginative dream patterns.

•    People tend to think in two ways. The most common is convergent thinking which spirals toward the centre, looking for answers and rejecting other alternatives. The other is divergent thinking, which radiates out from the centre, opening up new lines of enquiry. Everyone thinks both ways from time to time but creative people think divergently as a habit of mind.


•    Small children are divergent thinkers, often off at a tangent. When parents watch young children playing “Lets pretend …”they can be humbled by their sheer creativity.

•    The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once wrote “Genius resides in a combination of a child’s sense of magic and an adult’s trained mentality.” Regrettably, most children start to repress their wonderment and sense of adventurousness even before they reach intermediate school. This happens in part because of pressure from their peers to conform to group standards, but some teachers may contribute to the process, usually without being aware of this. Originality falters as soon as children begin to fear looking like fools. Some outstanding learners avoid excelling so as to be part of the social in-group of their mates. We need to encourage each individual to be their own person. “Tu tangata – stand strong” as Maori leaders say.

•    Highly creative people are often seen as eccentric. They may show less respect for conventions and be more willing to take risks than others.

•    Creative people may be less motivated by money or career advancement. They get more satisfaction out of hatching new ideas and carrying them through.

•    Creative people deliberately cultivate the habit of conjuring up scenarios and predicting possible outcomes. We can foster creativity in children by more frequently encouraging them to use prediction skills. We could start with the questions “What might happen if…?” or “How do you think this might affect your life in 5 years, 10 years?” and so on.

•    Physical age is not a factor. No matter how old we get, we can keep the desire to be creative. The key point is what we do with our knowledge. Sharing it with others is a great start.

How Can We Apply Creativity Skills?

We could rethink and discuss our role as teachers or parents with our colleagues to foster divergent thinking:

•    To use brainstorming, accepting all ideas

•    Constantly encourage alternative solutions

•    Offer alternatives in home tasks and assignments

•    Develop methods to capitalize on preferred learning approaches children enjoy e.g. mime, role-plays, sketching, illustrating, making charts, preparing a report, using computer skills, cartooning. Recognizing our role as adults to amplify opportunities for children to learn hobbies and crafts – to sing, play music, dance, draw, compose, model, invent new uses for things, dismantle objects, make puppets, sew, stitch, embroider, learn gardening and horticultural skills, to name a few. Discourage statements by anyone that are “put-downs” and constantly use “build-ups”. (Girls can do anything.)

•    Value the child or teenager who is different or unusual, the physically and socially disadvantaged.

•    Help children accept that career choices need not always focus on material wealth but on satisfaction and fulfillment for the individual. Many young people may gain satisfaction by training and working for helping agencies. These could include counseling, Youth line, forest or park rangers, personal trainers, language interpreters and mobile “fix it” operators, for example. We need creative people working part time as “people-in-parks” entertainers, buskers, clowns and tour guides and other entrepreneurs to build New Zealand ‘s hospitality industry.

•    With New Zealand’s aging population and larger numbers than ever in retirement villages and old people’s homes, young people could accept that that a new range of work opportunities is emerging to ensure that senior citizens maintain their creative potential. At present we tend to isolate the elderly from the young in the community. There is a case for young people to set up entertainment packages to visit residents of affluent retirement villages to present short concerts of songs, hymns, carols and multicultural dances on a paid basis. Councils may be willing to provide subsidies for transport costs for such enterprising young people from Creative Community grants.

•    To sum up, the real key to being creative lies in what we do with our knowledge and cumulative experience. Creative thinking requires an outlook which allows us to search for and share ideas. We should, I believe, make a personal commitment to develop creativity:

o    to help young people diversify their skills and talents so as to prepare for an uncertain future.

o    To develop children’s latent abilities to ensure they don’t face emotional difficulties, low self esteem and frustration in coping with the changes ahead.

As we use up natural resources at an ever-increasing rate, creativity is the chief renewable resource to deal with global problems. We need to develop these creative resources of the population to improve the welfare of humankind.