Neither Leonardo Da Vinci was perfect, nor should providing creative children with creativity in education should be an impediment. If they do not receive it at school, parents should be able to find a solution.
In this article I am going to answer three questions: how long creativity lasts in people, how can you be more creative and how you can block this ability.
Leonardo Da Vinci is probably the character most recognized for his creativity and innovation. I’m sure you already know a lot about his life and creations, but I’m not so sure that you know the main role that perfectionism played in Leonardo’s life.
I was surprised to learn that Leonardo Da Vinci was a person obsessed with perfectionism. Probably from there it follows that he was not a very prolific painter, at least not in number of works. Although if in its quality.
Especially in an early stage he was so obsessed with making only perfect works that even in his school he did not tolerate students with physical or mental handicaps. He did not accept people who did not meet his ideal of beauty.
But something happened in Leonardo’s life that called into question his concern to seek perfectionism. He realized that this search for perfection had stopped him from finishing different works and projects.
As David Zurdo relates in his book, Leonardo Da Vinci the genius behind the genius,
Understand that it has to turn around and become more practical. If he was always bothered by those who lose themselves in ramblings, he himself was now somewhat lost in his inner discussions. And he set out to end that attitude. Life did not stop to wait for him; he was getting older and time, which is unforgiving, forces him to change his course.
Little creatives and creativity in education
I recently spoke with an elementary school teacher. I didn’t know he was a teacher but somehow we were talking about my book, Hello Creativity , and why I consider that education slows down creativity in people.
Something I appreciated is that he asked me how I thought I could make creative schools go from concept to reality. He had listened to my explanations and it was consistent for him to seek answers.
My training as a coach has given me the possibility to calibrate and identify the meaning of certain positions and words. With this I was clear that I was in front of a person linked to education. I was right when I asked him if he was a teacher.
He confirmed that he was a teacher and that he was interested in what I was saying. That in some things he agreed and in others he did not.
We debated for a long time and in the end I asked him three questions that I want to share with you:
- How do you nurture a child’s creativity at school?
- What factor can block a child’s creativity?
- How long does a person’s creativity last?
How long does a person’s creativity last?
Image from Unsplash
NASA requested in 1986 to conduct a study to verify whether creativity is an extraordinary ability of the human being. According to the results obtained, it has been concluded that this is not the case. Being creative is not an extraordinary quality but rather the opposite, we are all creative.
However, the difference between creative people and those who are not is deduced from the application of this.
The scientists applied the same test to a group of 1,600 children between 3 and 5 years old, who belonged to a pilot school initiation program.
The results were surprising to discover that 98% of these children could be classified as “geniuses” in view of their creative capacity and to imagine new, different and innovative ideas.
They wanted to go further and applied the same test to the same group of children at three different times: 5 years after the first session, 10 years later and 25 years later, in other words, when the average age of the children was, respectively, 10, 15 and 31 years old.
The surprise at the results is really spectacular because of the decay of creativity applied over time.
Results of the study that demonstrates creativity in people over time.
If at school the number of creative children was almost 100%, at age 31 only 2% of these children maintain their levels of creativity. Only 2% of creative children maintain their creativity.
Creativity is one of the skills that will be most in demand in the coming years. Companies need creative people to make them stand out from so much competition. Right now for many adults being more creative is nothing more than a wish.
It is surprising to understand that when you are a child you are creative but with the passage of time this creativity disappears. The child remains creative even though his parents are not.
What factor can block creative kids?
Creativity in education should promote that not only are there more creative children, but parents and education does not stop it. Image from Unsplash .
Being creative does not mean being perfect. Leonardo da Vinci himself understood it that way.
Perfectionism is the greatest danger to creativity
Trying to be perfect makes you postpone your creations at the expense of being perfect but perfect for whom and for what?
Who is able to determine that something is perfect? Perfection is too personal and flexible to define what is perfect and what is not.
Faced with the search for perfection, it is always safer to seek to be excellent than to be perfect. What for you may be perfect for the world may not be.
Parents, great protectors of their children, bet on keeping their children’s creations as something perfect. In the eyes of the parent, a dog cannot have 3 eyes.
Children are creative because they don’t use filters according to reality. The father should not block the reality of a child because it does not conform to the habitual and common.
So the answer to what blocks creative kids is at home and in education.
How can you make your child more creative?
Image from Unsplash
I hope you are clear that limiting a child’s creativity is a first step in order not to limit that it can be enhanced.
Children’s creations neither have to be perfect nor do they have to be in line with the real world.
But if there is a question that you should ask a child so that it expands to its full extent, it is:
What would happen if…?
There is the question you must ask him.
What if tomorrow … you could see a flying car, what would it be like? What if the oceans submerged the entire earth … what would your home look like?
