The Generation Generation

The Generation Generation

Our little girl had two older brothers who loved to play with her toys — the wrong way. Push cars became skates, Teddy bears parachuted from trees, and a Jack-in-a-Box lid catapulted blocks across the room. We never knew what they would think of next.

Actually, there is no wrong way to play with a toy. Toys promote creativity — one of the vital skills needed for success in today’s world as detailed in Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children, by Roberta Michnick Golenkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek. Our two boys working together to misuse their sister’s toys were not being destructive; they were being creative. 

J.P. Guilford, an American psychologist who studied human intelligence, defined creativity as the ability to produce a number of different responses to a new problem. In today’s fast-moving world, new problems arise daily. Electric cars have arrived! Where do we plug them in? The Internet spans the world! How do we police it? 

Golenkoff and Hirsh-Pasek define a creative person as “one who can generate many responses of many different kinds, many of which are unusual or clever.” Anyone can be creative. There is no age requirement or special degree needed. Young children begin experimenting almost as soon as they can sit up. What will happen if I drop this spoon? They discover that Mom or Dad will pick it up! Soon baby is throwing the spoon farther and noting how many times it can be dropped before the spoon is not returned.

As children learn more about the world, they experiment and begin creating solutions for themselves. One little friend of mine, when deprived of his toys for the infraction of not putting them away, used the empty boxes to create new toys. Another, during a particularly fractious presidential election season, nominated her Teddy bear, Rainbow, for office. He won! (I voted for him.) If at first they don’t succeed, children will try, try, try again to figure it out and get it done in new and creative ways.

Children look for problems to solve. They study them and make proposals. Asking “What if?” opens the door for novel solutions. They adapt, invent, fail,  and try another way. They communicate, collaborate, use information, and evaluate. They develop the skills necessary for success.

Parents and teachers nurture creativity by providing space for playing and thinking. Free play is important! Supply the materials kids need to create — paint, glue, blocks, scissors, space, paper, empty boxes, toys, time, experiences, and encouragement. Let your children act out — act out with them — be silly, make up songs and plays, role play, do something or do nothing together. Dream with them, not for them. Let them find problems and propose solutions. Stand by and cheer when they do.

Allow and encourage creativity in your children. Prepare them today for tomorrow’s world. What problems will they face? What solutions will they create? 

What will they think of next? 

(This is the sixth in a series of articles inspired by Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D. and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D. I encourage you to read it.)