Are creativity and art the same thing?
Do you think creativity can be taught? Why or why not?
What experiences have you had, to date, that illustrate your perspective?

Creativity CAN be taught.  To spur creativity, the teacher or learner must assure themselves it is OK to fail or take a risk.  If no one took risks, everyone would be boring and mundane.  Creativity can be taught by accepting initial failure.

-Dan, Gr. 12

I do not think creativity can be taught.  Rather, a person’s creativity is based on experiences the person has had, and it can be shaped by what the person has learned throughout his life.  So while you cannot teach creativity (and to a lesser extent, experiences), you can mold the way somebody’s creativity is developed.

-Chris, Gr. 10

In my opinion, you cannot ‘teach’ creativity.  However, you can encourage creativity.  Creativity is like a tree that needs nurturing…. and by far the perfect person to nurture creativity is a teacher.  So in a way creativity is being instructed, not taught.

-Nate, Gr. 9

I do not think creativity can be taught, but I believe it can be encouraged or brought out of someone.  Setting and providing good examples may make a clear path to opening another’s mind to their creative abilities.  Creativity is a personal quality, it is what the person thinks of when they look at their work with a clear mind.  What each individual person’s mind imagines is telling them is what to do is creativity.

-Connor, Gr. 12

I do not believe creativity can be taught because creativity is something out of your imagination.  That is something that cannot be taught.  If you looked for creativity class on Google, it would be random pictures, but art class on Google would pop up very clearly as classes.

I take art class once a week, and in my opinion, there is no creativity in that class.  All students do is just look at pictures and copy it down on paper.  Creativity would be starting with a blank page or canvas and painting or drawing from your mind.

-Sam, Gr. 9

I do think that creativity and art are the same thing in the way that art in physical form is your creativity on display. Basically to me art is creativity because everything that you make in art requires you to have to dream it first and then make it second.

To me, creativity comes from your mind and what you have experiences in life.  So when I say creativity can be learned but not taught, I mean that only you can gain creativity, nobody can teach you it.  Ways to learn creativity are by experiencing new things and especially seeing neat configurations in nature to base your creativity off of.

-Andrew, Gr. 9

Some regular classes like math and science are straightforward and the answer is the answer, no ifs, ands, or buts.  But sometimes in English – and maybe a Physics roller coaster that you have to build – you can be creative like in ceramics.

-Doug, Gr. 9

I don’t think creativity can be taught; however, I think the ability to express creativity can be taught.  Everyone has creativity inside them, much of it untapped because, as Chris Staley puts it, people are “in fear of the wrong answer.”

Creativity in ceramics and in other classes are similar.  Trying new things without the fear of failure in ceramics classes carries over to other classes.  Ceramics and art taught me an important lesson; don’t just think outside of the box, but break the box down and make something new out of it.

-Mike, Gr. 12