"Creativity is a Habit"

From the February 22nd issue of EdWeek.Org:

Creativity Is a Habit
by Robert J. Sternberg

It may sound paradoxical that creativity—a novel response—is a habit, a routine response. But creative people are creative largely not by any particular inborn trait, but because of an attitude toward their work and even toward life: They habitually respond to problems in fresh and novel ways, rather than allowing themselves to respond in conventional and sometimes automatic ways.

Like any habit, creativity can either be encouraged or discouraged. The main things that promote the habit are (a) opportunities to engage in it, (b) encouragement when people avail themselves of these opportunities, and (c) rewards when people respond to such encouragement and think and behave creatively. You need all three. Take away the opportunities, encouragement, or rewards, and you will take away the creativity. In this respect, creativity is no different from any other habit, good or bad.

Dr. Sternberg doesn't talk about technology in his discussion of creativity (the whole article is well worth your time), but I do know that the freedom and control students experience when they are working with technology very often results in quite wonderfully creative products. Phil Scully's 3rd graders' haiku is a good example.

Of course, we educators have to cultivate the habit of creativity ourselves, before we can effectively nurture it in our students. We have many of the same pressures toward non-creative behaviors as our students experience...and we've had a much longer time to build counter-creative habits that need to be broken. I'm determined to maximize my Seven Habits of Highly Creative People", outlined in a short article by Mika Ono Benedyk. The last habit in the list is "Playful and Fun". Think I'll start with that one!