The Creativity Crisis

A very interesting article about creativity, the need for and the lack of in our country. Personally, in my family we have embraced the need for crea'tivi'ty. We are so enamored with the concept... that our first daughter is named Tiviana. PA

Back in 1958, Ted Schwarzrock was an 8-year-old third grader when he became one of the “Torrance kids,” a group of nearly 400 Minneapolis
children who completed a series of creativity tasks newly designed by
professor E. Paul Torrance. Schwarzrock still vividly remembers the
moment when a psychologist handed him a fire truck and asked, “How could
you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?” He
recalls the psychologist being excited by his answers. In fact, the
psychologist’s session notes indicate Schwarzrock rattled off 25
improvements, such as adding a removable ladder and springs to the
wheels. That wasn’t the only time he impressed the scholars, who judged
Schwarzrock to have “unusual visual perspective” and “an ability to
synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products.”

The accepted definition of creativity is production of something
original and useful, and that’s what’s reflected in the tests. There is
never one right answer. To be creative requires divergent thinking
(generating many unique ideas) and then convergent thinking (combining
those ideas into the best result).

In the 50 years since Schwarzrock and the others took their tests,
scholars—first led by Torrance, now his colleague, Garnet Millar—have
been tracking the children, recording every patent earned, every
business founded, every research paper published, and every grant
awarded. They tallied the books, dances, radio shows, art exhibitions,
software programs, advertising campaigns, hardware innovations, music
compositions, public policies (written or implemented), leadership
positions, invited lectures, and buildings designed.

Link to full article and interesting links including the Torrance t...