Educators often do not recognize their most creative students. I witnessed examples of this behavior as teachers described which poems they preferred in an anthology written by students. The cheerful rhyming poems were often considered better than those dealing with serious topics using unique metaphors and imagery. Do educators find works that bring up difficult questions unacceptable? How do they feel about students that produce them?
Both majors in creative fields and education majors place willingness to take risks high on their list of creative traits. However, the education majors gave high self-esteem first place when I gathered data for a research project. The teachers advised maintaining a classroom with an accepting atmosphere, free from criticism.
This did not match the recommendations of people studying creative fields. Both creative writing and art majors agreed that being around creative people was an important factor. But, self-esteem wasn’t even mentioned. They preferred honest critiques of their work from other more experienced artists.
Creative writers sought out critiques, willing for others to review their precious work while secretly hoping the reviewer would say it was amazing. But most writers understood that the praise provided by friends and family members was not useful. They needed people who were not afraid to let them know what was wrong with their work-in-progress.
Alex Osborn, known for founding the Creative Problem-Solving Institute, set up a structure for group creative brainstorming. One rule to free people from creative inhibitions is to forbid criticism and judgment during initial brainstorming. All ideas are to be expressed without any negative feedback because people tend to champion their own ideas at the expense of other better ideas. It only takes a small minority set on “defending their turf” to have a detrimental effect. [1]
However, when producing ideas for creative products, rules change. Research conducted in both the United States and France examined the result of brainstorming groups. Some groups were told not to criticize the ideas of colleagues while the other groups were was encouraged to debate these ideas. Those allowing debate generally came up with superior results. However, some restrictions were applied so no one person was allowed to monopolize the brainstorming session.[2]
“Brainstorming techniques have specifically admonished people ‘not to criticize’ their own and others’ ideas, a tenet that has gone unexamined. In contrast, there is research showing that dissent, debate and competing views have positive value, stimulating divergent and creative thought.” [2]
Most teachers say they want to maintain a classroom with an open and accepting atmosphere–one that is free from criticism. Is this a realistic goal? Is it even a good one? If the quality of work makes no difference in how it is received, why put in the extra effort to produce something that is excellent? People in creative fields will agree with the need for a stimulating environment, but not with the lack of criticism. Asking others for critiques can encourage innovative ideas.
People in the corporate world find creative colleagues difficult for the same reasons that some educators do. Employees with inventive ideas tend to level criticism at others more frequently.[3] But most creative people do not seem hurt as much by criticism as the general population is. Both innovative students and employees take the anxiety resulting from a negative evaluation of their work and convert it into energy. This fuels their drive to be even more unique.[4]
[1] Osborn, Alex. F. (1953) Applied imagination: Principles and procedures of creative thinking
[2] Nemeth, Charlan J. Personnaz, Bernard. Personnaz, Marie. Goncalo, Jack A. (2004) The liberating role of conflict in group creativity: A study in two countries. European Journal of Social Psychology,Volume 34, Issue 4, pages 365–374,
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