I hear it over and over again, mostly from educators, students aren't creative. Hearing this would make me angry because I truly believe that students are creative, but their creativity is not the same as ours was when we were there age.
This year, after teaching students I had taught before for two years, I have a new bunch of students. I think these first two weeks of school has been adjustment period for my students, as they realize that I'm not like other teachers. For example, this week I assigned a project for my students to make a poster about any city in the state we live in. After going over the requirements, I asked the students if they had any questions and one child raised her hand. Her questions was this, "I'm confused as to how you want this poster to look. Are you looking for a rock band style poster or the information organized a certain way?" And for the first time, I realized majority of my students were not creative and the reason why they were not creative is because teachers have dictated every step and appearance of their project, and more than likely this became a factor in their grade.
My answer to my student was simple, I want the poster to look the way she wants it to and not the way she thinks will make me happy. After all, this project is a reflection of her and the type of work she produces. As long as the required elements were on the poster, the poster could be put together any way she would like it to. When I said this, you could see the children's brains going to work and this child in particular told me that she wanted to make her poster into a big brochure. That never even entered my mind as an idea for the poster! When I looked at my students this time, I saw CREATIVITY!
So, if you really wonder why students are not creative ask yourself if your assignments allow them to be creative?
