Books as Building Blocks of Creativity

The idea of children being sacred in terms of their pure innocence and wild imagination, and adults being deprived of these qualities is widely accepted by many. In fact, the theme of children losing their innocence and creativity as they grow up appears continuously in works such as Jim Barry’s Peter Pan, P. L. Travers’s Mary Poppins, and Jay D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Ken Robinson, in his speech, reiterates this commonly known process of audacious, imaginative children becoming closed, conventional adults and pinpoints the current education system as the culprit of this process. In my opinion, I believe that the most costless yet effective way to prevent this process that is such a commonplace nowadays is to establish an education system that fosters and encourages reading and discussion.

Ken Robinson mostly focuses on the responsibilities of the educators in fostering and maintaining creativity in children, sharply criticizing people who do not realize the richness of human capacity and suppress children from releasing their creative self, such as the numerous teachers that diagnose ADHD for their fidgety students. Yes, of course, the educators play a very significant role in determining whether the children grow up to be dull and banal or creative and bright. However, I believe that sustaining creativity is not a one-way process, and students, too, must be able to accept and fully make use of the environments created by the educators, such is the case with the reading-then-discussion education model that I am proposing.

First of all, just reading itself is a fundamental building block of maintaining and fostering creativity. Fiction books give a chance for students to use their imagination by being in the characters’ shoes, creating characters in their heads, and reading the emotions of the characters. They inspire children to keep on dreaming. Nonfiction books provide actual facts that children can apply in different situations. The combination of the two types of books help children have “original ideas that have value,” the definition of creativity according to Ken Robinson. Therefore, educators must arouse a love for learning in children. They can do so by scheduling weekly trips to the library in which librarians can introduce new books worth reading and a list of recommended books. Kindergartens can have a story time at the end of the day, where children can all sit around in a circle listening to the voice of the teacher reading to them from inspiring books. Classes can also undergo an activity called “the Battle of the Books,” an entertaining activity in which students are given a list of books to read and the team who answers the most questions about the books wins. There are countless ways of encouraging the love of reading, without investing much money or effort.

Then, after creating a much-reading environment, discussion of the reading material should be encouraged. Creativity requires the exercise of the mind, and discussions requiring critical thinking will provide the prefect workout of the mind, training it to be ready to produce sparks of brilliant ideas. This is the part when the individuals’ role kicks in. Individuals must be willing to share their opinions without the fear of being wrong. They should actively participate in discussions and not be shy to share their own feelings, thoughts, and opinions about the material they have read with others. These repeated discussions will get students in the habit of thinking in an out-of-the-box way and presenting in front of a group of people. The supervisor of the discussion does not have to do anything. In fact, intervention is not recommended. Let the students freely express themselves. Just observe the discussion and admire the “richness of human capacity” as shown in the ideas exchanging among numerous students.

The problem of the current system is that children are finding less and less time to read as they grow older. When I was young, I used to get my nose stuck in a book and read through the whole night. However, now, as a high-school student, I am pressured by the due-dates of various assignments, the dates of various quizzes and tests, and do not find the time to read anything. This is a problem that needs to be fixed. Of course, one may argue that the mere reading and discussion of books will not bring any significant change in the creativity of the future generations. However, I stand firm in my belief that books inspire individuals to let their imaginations soar and discussions aid in expression of the imagination.