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There are many unsolved problems in the world: environmental problems, economic crises, Donald Trump and homework in Russian. The world is desperate for innovative solutions. Yes, judging by the frantic amount of products labeled “innovative,” we have made a breakthrough in almost all areas of life. But in fact, insoles usually appear in a package with such a sticker. It is difficult to say something against the new insoles, but no one has yet come up with what to do with the economic crisis, the porridge on the roads, and even more so the homework.
Americans are famous for their love of tests. Since the 60s, they test children for intelligence - with the famous IQ tests, and for creative thinking - with the tests of Torrens. This is a series of separate tasks that are done in the psychologist’s office within an hour and a half. At the same time, it is curious that high ratings of the creativity test correlate better with future successes than IQ-test ratings.
According to a study by Jonathan Placker, those who came up with the most interesting solutions to Torrens tasks most often became entrepreneurs, inventors, and even diplomats. But guys with a high level of intelligence, fate scattered more bizarre and not always so successful.
Recently, scientists have become alarmed: if IQ is growing quite steadily, then the level of creative thinking grew from the 1960s to the 1990s, and then fell steadily. The decline in children's creativity turned out to be so significant that ten years ago, well-known Western media began to publish articles with high-profile headlines, which dealt with the "crisis of creativity." In some educational programs, for example, in the British, they decided to emphasize the importance of developing creative thinking and introduced the Torrens test to evaluate the educational result.
The psychologist Kay Kim, author of The Creativity Challenge: How We Can Recapture American Innovation, explains that perhaps this is a change in educational values. Throughout the 20th century, the educational system in the United States encouraged creativity and intellectual diversity. Together with economic growth, creativity gradually ceased to be considered the right way to stable work and high salaries, so everyone switched to preparing for standardized tests.
In Russia, creativity has never been synonymous with success at all, if you are not Tchaikovsky. For historical reasons, to move up the career ladder, completely different qualities were needed, and a too inventive approach would rather interfere with the matter. Today, the idea of introducing a course on the development of creative thinking in school is unlikely to find support.
What creativity is there when it is not clear how to manage to master the general program and avoid sewing an apron in labor lessons.
What is the fictional world of the child and how it is associated with creativity
Imaginary world, paracosm - a thing invented by children at school age. It is very detailed, thought out, as a rule, has its own geography, history and language. They do not live in paracosm one day. The game develops over a long time, maybe several months, or maybe several years. The world can transform and experience difficult times, but the deep relationship between fantasy and its creator remains unchanged.
The term "paracosm" was proposed in 1976 by the American scientist Robert Sylvie. Our name didn’t really take root, and researchers sometimes use strange names that are better suited for a matinee in the nursery - “Game in a Dream Country”.
At the same time, any parent is likely to be wary if he hears from the child “Wait a minute, I'll take a walk around Lollipop City!”, But at the same time he is not sitting on the computer. In general, a computer can often be the only excuse for such an answer. If the student “went for a walk” lying on the couch, we are noticeably nervous and try to attract him to more pressing problems: cleaning or homework.
However, to calm down, it’s enough to recall that in childhood C.S. Lewis spent time in the invented Kingdom of Boxel (the feet of the famous Narnia grow from it), the Bronte sisters had fun in the fictional kingdom of Gondel for lack of a computer (although, it would seem, between Jane Eyre ”and Handel there is no connection), and from the child who draws a map of Conduit and Swabrania, the writer Lev Kassil grows up.
Researchers from the University of Oregon studied the behavior of children aged 8-12 and found that approximately 17% of them talk about deep and complex imaginary worlds. These parallel universes could vary greatly, but all of them included information about the environment (caves, seas and castles), their inhabitants (animals, elves, bandits), and there were different cool things, like a fountain from which jets of honey beat.
At first glance, it might seem that a person dreaming of a honey fountain is an antisocial type who simply cannot go chasing the ball with the other guys
However, the study did not find any differences between children with imaginary worlds and without them, neither in understanding speech, nor in working memory. Yes, children with developed imagination had some difficulties with deterrence and control. Scientists believe that this is a fee for creativity - the desire to always break out of the permissible limits. In addition, paracosms are a very social activity. Children often immerse themselves in it in company, together build their little communism.
Other scholars could further please parents whose children stick their heads in the clouds. After analyzing children's gaming habits of successful people, they noticed some similarities. Those who have had a more or less interesting paracosm in their biography, as a rule, make an equally interesting contribution to real life: innovative literary masterpieces, innovative technical achievements, or a change in traditional social forms. Here the writer is greeted by the writer Jack Kerouac, neuroscientist Oliver Sachs, physicist and writer Stanislav Lem, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and many other people who did not fit into the article.
In general, the researchers claim that such a gaming activity is likely to predict creative success.
Why children's paracosms are in danger
The fact that creativity is falling, there are many explanations. For example, it is quite difficult for a modern child to dream up or to escape into his cute, fictional world from reality. This happens for many reasons.
1. We endlessly entertain children
It is inconceivable that someone would idle around the street or just calmly carry his feet on the carpet. Each lesson has a plan, a goal and a visible result. School, mental arithmetic, programming courses, additional English - that's all, it's time to sleep, and tomorrow, daughter, we will go to the zoo. Where is the time to swing to the creation of some Middle-earth?
2. They sit a lot on the phone
The time that children spend in front of the TV, at computers and behind the screens of smartphones is considered the time when the child is resting. We will not take into account those 20 minutes when a third grader tried to glue a presentation about flies. If you have a good video game with fairies and transformers or a cartoon that gave you ready-made images, there is no need to compose something of your own.
3. Children are loaded with tests and controls
It’s a paradox, but in the endless race for success, we ourselves deprive children of the opportunity to be creative people. Training for tests, preparation for VLR, USE, olympiads and control - it seems that they are the secret of the person who can do everything. But no, everyone passes the final exam, and Kerouac was only one.
How to help your child create his own world
Skeptics who, pouting their lips, will say that there are creative impulses from birth or not, can present the results of studies conducted on the twins. Apparently, genetics can explain only a small fraction of what is called a creative streak of a person. So it makes sense to develop it with your own hands, too.
1. Provide him communication with inventive people
Creativity is a contagious thing. Experiments prove that when we are surrounded by people with ideas, creative impulses wake up in us and even break out. Especially cleverly, children learn parental manners. If you composed a symphony for half a day or at least figured out how to attach speakers to skis, you are on the right track.
2. Do not turn away from fantasy
Cinema, of course, provides us with ready-made images, but some of it at the same time powerfully stimulates the imagination. One study showed a truly magical effect: if children watch a 15-minute video with Harry Potter, then they are more creative than those who watched "In the world of animals." The effect persists even after a few days. Something tells us that the effect of Tolkien’s book can be even more impressive.
3. Love role-playing games
Something suitable in the format of DND. DND, or “Dungeon and Dragons” (“Dungeons and Dragons”) is a legend in the gaming industry. The thing that smart guys play at the beginning of the series “Very Strange Things” and the gifted physicists from “The Big Bang Theory” play. A group of participants, turning into fairy-tale characters, walks around the world, resolving conflicts, engaging in battles and skirmishes, and from time to time throwing fireballs.
The host, who is also a storyteller, tells the players what is happening to them (“The red-eyed centaur flies at you!”), And they, in turn, say what they are doing in connection with the attack of the centaur: they beat him with a sword or hide behind a tree. Then the centaur will also answer something. It is important that the plot unfolds exclusively in the imagination of the participants. At the same time, it depends on their actions where the plot will turn further.
4. Give children more freedom
In the territory cleared of school routine and parental decrees, even the most non-creative person will begin to invent their paracosms. No need to sit down at the table in the evening with the words “Well, now, Kolka, you and I will go for a Camelot!” Go ahead, compose! ” Moreover, it is more likely to frighten off the flight of thought. But, for example, to remove gadgets and ready-made entertainment for a while would be great. In their place should come time for spontaneous play and reading books.
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