Creativity and Inventiveness

Creativity and Inventiveness are two qualities that many of my teachers throughout school encouraged. Teachers often times want their students to think "outside of the box." We find the theme of creativity used more often in Art, Music, English and Social Sciences, but harder in Math and Science. It is a teacher's job, teaching a "creative class" or not, to promote inventiveness in each individual student. It's hard to reward creativity because each person's idea of something "creative" is different. I think the basis of creativitiy should deal with whether or not a student is proud of something that they have worked on.

My Paideia professor last year was a teacher who demanded creativity and inventiveness. At first, I struggled in the class. Having a "math brain," I HATED thinking critically about books. (I like X=a definite answer, not some “Well, it could be this, but it may be this too…”) Paideia and my professor taught me to appreciate all the ways of creatively looking at things more in detail. I realized that I could read books and know what they meant. I could even write a 5 page paper on that material. My professor helped me think critically about texts, which is so important. She demanded that we think creatively about material, so we were pushed to present our maximum potential. I hope that some day I can demand creativity from my students just as that professor did for me.