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Creativity in America

August 19, 2010 | by Sandy Tollefson

“Creativity in America” was the cover story of Newsweek magazine as I passed the store in the airport. It was touted as The science of innovation and how to reignite our imaginations. Now that was a headline I could identify with. I mean, I’m creative and I’m in America. And re-ignition sounded cool.  Here within the ever-thinning pages of a print magazine would be the expose on the state of creativity. Perhaps with pictures!

I laid down my $5.95 (yes, that’s what it now costs) and headed down the concourse. I kept the little gem in my carry-on, saving it to read as I enjoyed my 4 ounces of free Diet Coke and mini bag of mini pretzels.

Once settled, belted in, electronics turned off and the kid beside me clawing at his mom to get out of the seatbelt, I opened the magazine to page 45. It seems like we are in something called “The Creativity Crisis.” Gulp. Not good for those of us making a living being creative.

The article focused on how this thing called the creativity quotient (like intelligence quotient, only more important) is declining in America. Seems that for years researchers have been able to track the CQ of kids, and for the first time American creativity scores are slip-sliding away. According to the article, creativity scores used to go up year after year. That was until 1990. Since then, scores have been declining.

What made me nearly choke on my pretzel, causing quite a stir among my fellow passengers, was that kids from kindergarten through sixth grade are exhibiting the most serious decline. The reason why is not known, for sure. It appears there is support for the idea that passively watching TV and playing video games is interrupting kids’ creative activity time. Interesting hypothesis, I thought, as the kid in the next seat jabbed me with his elbow as he celebrated making it to the super-duper advanced level of the video game he was playing.

It also seems we’ve successfully squeezed out creativity from school curriculums. Hmm, I wondered. Perhaps a standardized test for creativity is what we need. One that begins with the question: Provide the meaning of the word creativity. The answer would be based on rote memorization of the agreed upon definition as determined by a scholarly group of scholars.

The article went on talking about CQ in other countries, how a few schools have had some success improving creativity, and how employing the science of creativity can reverse our downward creative spiral. Let the reverse begin, I thought.

The entire topic was giving me the creative jitters. I had to push the magazine into the seat pocket in front of me, next to the throw-up bag and emergency exit instructions. The kid next to me was still consumed by the little spurts of power he deployed as he inched his way to King of All Time in the game he was playing. His look was intent, his fingers flying. Hmm…. I turned on my iTunes and tuned out the world, trusting creativity always finds a way.

Read the article: ‘The Creativity Crisis’ at newsweek.com.