Creativity & Art Education - Research Paper Example

If one thinks of a new idea, he has to evaluate its feasibility or workability, convince those who are in charge of putting it into practice that it will work, and if they do not accept it persist with it in the face of opposition. Many people relate creativity to intelligence. Studies have shown that there is no direct relation between the two. Environment on the other hand may have an important part to play in creativity. There also seems to be a co-relation between creativity, spontaneity and freedom of thought.

Creative people are usually found to be more impulsive and unafraid to experiment with new ideas and voice their opinions even if these go against the norm. Creating an environment for children where they have the freedom to experiment and are exposed to new experiences can nurture creativity in them. Can creativity be learned? Yes it can. All of us were very creative as children, till we learned that there were certain ways of doing things that are considered the right ways. If we can learn to question the way we think and try to stifle the idea that a new way of doing something must lead to failure, every one of us has it in us to be creative.

Art education has long been associated with the notion of creativity. However the question remains of how we define creativity. Is it a sudden flash of inspiration or is it as Edison described it 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration? There was a time when art education focused on creativity, which in turn was linked to spontaneity and novelty. Hence the curriculum was designed to develop creativity in children rather than teach them skills. This was the model on which art teachers were trained.

The four functions on which creativity depended were thought to be fluency, flexibility, originality and openness. Freud considered creativity as an unconscious primary process, and the prevailing thinking was that children were more creative when left alone and art should be fun and