The measure of creativity

It’s very, very early Monday morning and I just finished watching the Oscars, which were, for once, high on humor and talent and low on embarrassment. Equally rare, pretty much all the nominees were deserving, so even when some of those I thought should win didn’t, the bitter sense that good work had been robbed and lame work rewarded was enjoyably missing.  

But entertaining though it was, the show got me thinking – as it often does – about how creativity is judged. Most of us realize that neither performances nor any other kinds of creative works can fairly be compared to each other because each is unique in approach,context, goals and means. To pick a “best” actor or newspaper story or scientific breakthrough, though fun, is silly, really, and has the quite destructive effect of making losers of a lot of excellent people and their accomplishments. 

This isn’t the lesson people need to learn about creativity. What individuals and whole societies need to realize is that any creative thought or act has value in terms of adding ingredients to the pot of human ideas and stirring it – and while not all the results of creativity are positive ones, all of them add flavor to the soup of human experience and knowledge.  

So how do we go about setting U.S. educational standards for instruction in creativity? (The United Kingdom has some ideas.) We’re going to have to adopt standards if creativity is to become an integrated part of core curricula in our schools – as it should, because artistic, scientific and mathematical invention and creative interpretation in all fields teach the imagination, critical thinking, problem-solving and self-expression that humans need to do any task well, especially the many we must attempt in order to make the world a safer and more enjoyable place. But to turn creativity into a competition will shut out and discourage many.

Including everyone is essential, no matter how different each person’s abilities and tastes. And perhaps measuring creative achievement should be no more complicated than this: that our schools’ and communities’ requirements will be met if a student has gotten an idea, worked hard to express and develop it, and ended up with results that demonstrate a process of thought and action.

We probably can’t, and wouldn’t want to, stop industry popularity contests such as the Academy Awards. But we can make sure that every child leaves school with creative skills that help him or her feel like a winner – and succeed like one.