The Nature of Creativity

Yesterday I got into a discussion with somebody about teaching creativity. She supposed, as most people do, that creativity cannot be taught. I decided to play devil’s advocate (surprise, surprise) and argue that it might well be teachable. The thing was, as we were arguing, I got to seriously thinking about it and realised that that might actually be true.

Conventional wisdom has us believe that creativity is something that is innate and inborn. Some people have it, others don’t and that’s all there is too it. To try and teach somebody creativity is a little like trying to teach them to have blond hair.

But is that true? I mean, I’ll immediately accept that creativity does seem to run in families. Often children (or grand children) of creatives often demonstrate creative traits themselves. My own family is the perfect example, with playwrights, composers, musicians, actors, chefs and painters galore in the last three generations alone. Since I haven’t done any research into this, I assume that part of this is hereditary and part of this is a history of creativity within the family (with exposure provoking creativity).

Still, that said, though I accept that some families are more creative and others less so, I don’t feel that some races (i.e. Asians) are more creative than others. Yet almost everybody will accept that some places seem to produce more artists than other places. Some places have had a great deal of art come out of them (like Italy during the renaissance), while other areas seem to have less creativity (like Singapore since its independence).

If that isn’t because of race, then that must be because of culture and culture, as we all know, is taught.

Now I’m not suggesting that creativity can be memorised like mathematics, or grammar, but I do think people can have their creativity stoked. A class that exposes people to creative endeavours and helps inspire them to do creative work might well improve the creative output and quality of the students that take the class.

So, in that sense, creativity can be taught.