February 4: What is Creativity and why is it important?

Sir Ken Robinson defines creativity as 'the process of coming up with original ideas that have value.' And we might ask, well, what value, and to whom is it valuable? Today I talked to Sheridan Stewart on ABC Sunshine FM about creativity and education. Creativity is not about decorating the edges of pages with pretty flowers or splashing pleasing colours on a canvass, although both those things could be creative acts. Creativity, as one ten-year old put it 'makes me feel happy and joyful'. It is also about innovation and accident, about collaboration and being 'out of your comfort zone' as Dr Paul Williams, Program Leader in Creative Writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast says. In Australian schools where standardised tests and a standardised curriculum put increasing pressure on teachers to measure and benchmark student work, it's possible that we are indeed, killing creativity, and becoming a society valuing only what we can measure in a narrow band of criteria. Listen to the first of a series of segments here and leave a comment. https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sunshine/programs/south-queensland-drive/creativity/10779072