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A14 LOCAL
Thursday 1 augusT 2019

“Creative Development”: More Than Just Entertainment

other subjects as well. Also, we must
Maastricht – With the successful performance of the Aruba Sympho- value a child’s creativity and not di-
ny Festival (ASF) this summer, one impressive captured moment was minish their vision and freedom to
when a group of children who were participating in a local summer explore “newness”, but instead en-
camp were invited to witness what a musical symphonic orchestra courage children to be different. This
looks and sounds like in Cas di Cultura. The representatives of the will require the provision of time and
ASF expressed that their intention was to inspire the children present space for creative expression, and
to consider learning how to play an instrument. Besides just witness- materials conductive to creativity.
ing a beautiful performance by the participants of the ASF, some Allow children to activate the right
children got the opportunity to engage in the musical activity and side of the brain which is completely
experienced hands on how to “direct” the orchestra. With this lead, depended on context formation,
today we are going to discuss the role of creativity in the develop- visual stimuli, intuition, emotion and
ment of children, considering the importance of exposing children imagination. Fun fact, guess which
to the opportunity to developing their artistic and creative skills. side of the brain is most dominant.
Well, it is the right side, the uncon-
It is known to many that creativity starts early in life. Babies and ventional side, the side most people
toddlers express themselves through language, singing, dancing, this, besides the environment chil- ignore.
the way they play with their toys, painting etc. If we try defining cre- dren are growing up in, most of the
ativity we can summarize the following: the ability to see things in time they also face societal norms Coming back to the influence of
new ways, boundary breaking and going beyond the information and expectations. In this case, gen- music on children, which is simply
given (thinking outside the box), thinking unconventionally, mak- der roles have a lot of influence of one artistic element available, it is
ing something unique, or combining unrelated things into some- creative children by pinpointing important to also understand how
thing new. From previous research, specific personality traits have expectations on boys to be manly music can add value to the child
been identified linking to people who are highly creative. These and girls to be sensitive. It is hard for on a deeper level. Music does not
personality traits include: being open to the new or unexpected; creative boys who want to become only teach children how to play an
a tolerance for ambiguity; a willingness to experiment and take fashion designers or ballet dancers, instrument, it teaches the child team
risks impulsivity for complexity; being highly intuitive and sensitive; because they are considered more work skills, responsibility, account-
being flexible; individualism, independence and introversion; non- feminine traits, or even girls who ability, punctuality, respect, owner-
conformity; playfulness and a sense of humor; and a strong sensory want to become sculptors or work ship, humbleness, perseverance, fo-
awareness (Gelineau, 2004). with wood and other raw materials, cus and concentration abilities, the
because they are considered more ability to listen, good coordination
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people manly. On the other hand, another and structure.
how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't way we can limit highly creative
really do it, they just saw something - Steve Jobs children is by imposing cultural tradi- Continued on Page 14
tions that go against their core per-
Now, if creativity is known for being inherent in people, there must sonality. It is important to recognize
be external developmental factors that could either enhance or a child’s abilities and respect their
deplete creative potential as growth occurs. Potential obstacles individual development, because in
for creativity to manifest in the development of children can occur the end they will be successful be-
from their home environment; school environment; gender roles; cause they got the chance to grow
and the society, culture and traditions they pertain to. We all know and strengthen what they naturally
the saying “education starts at home” and the fact that the home are talented at.
environment is the first space where children develop their char- It is the supreme art of the teacher
acteristics and abilities. In the case of highly creative children most to awaken joy in creative expression
times behave and act differently due to their particular personality and knowledge - Albert Einstein
traits. Families in this case need to be informed about the essence
of creativity and they should be educated on how to enhance the Now how can we facilitate creativ-
development of their children and not break their spirits. ity in children (not only highly cre-
ative ones)? Well, there are endless
Now, considering the special personality traits of highly creative ways to accomplish this. One way
children, too often they are expected to perform well in a school is to simply celebrate creativity and
system that for the most part is based on a convergent way of diversity by allow children to be cu-
thinking, which goes against all traits of these artistic and creative rious. It is important for children to
children. These children might rebel or become extremely uninter- realize that creativity is not only lim-
ested in the daily activities they are expected to perform. Next to ited to arts, but it can transcend into