"Today we are going to draw pictures," announced the teacher. "Oh good," thought the little boy. "I love to draw pictures; I can make cars and trucks and fish and..."

But the teacher said "Wait. Today we are going to draw flowers!"

"Good," thought the boy. "I love to draw flowers," and he started to draw all kinds of colors of flowers. But the teacher said, "Wait! I will show you how." She drew a red flower with a green stem. The boy thought his flowers looked better, but he turned his paper over and drew a red flower with a green stem, and the teacher gave him a good grade.

"Today we are going to play with clay," announced the teacher. "Oh good," thought the boy; "I love to model clay. I can make cars and elephants and houses and birds." But the teacher said "Wait! Today we are going to make dishes." Thought the little boy, "I can make real good dishes," and began to make them in all shapes and sizes.

But the teacher said, "Wait! I will show you how." And the teacher modeled a deep dish from the clay. The boy looked at the dishes he modeled and thought they were better than the teacher's, but he crushed them in his hand and made a deep dish from the clay and the teacher gave him a good grade.

Later the boy moved to a different school. "Today we are going to draw pictures," announced his new teacher. She passed out the paper and crayons, but the little boy waited. The teacher said, "Aren't you going to draw your pictures?" And the little boy said, "Show me what to draw."

The teacher said, "You can draw anything you like. If everyone drew the same picture, each of us would not be able to express our divine gifts and individualism."

The boy thought a minute, took out his crayons and began to draw a red flower with a green stem.

As this story illustrates, allowing each person's creativity to flourish and consequently grow is a necessary component for celebrating the individual and encouraging what that person will produce. Squelching out creativeness produces like-minded thinking and little in the way of productive new ideas. "Imagination is more important than knowledge," is a quote attributed to Albert Einstein, a man who gifted the world in many ways with his ability to think outside the box.

When I enter the hallway of many schools today, it doesn't take long for me to evaluate the amount of creative activity and thinking that is taking place with students. All I have to do is look at the displayed artwork outside a classroom to tell if those students are being allowed to have original thinking encouraged, or if what I call Regurgitation Education is taking place. Regurgitation Education is just what the name implies - push it in, pull it out; push it in, pull it out; push it in, pull it out, etc. You get the idea; 25 little snowmen all the same, except maybe for the placement or color of a mitten or the angle of his pipe, all staring at you from a display board.

If you are lucky enough to be spending part of your day with a child or children bursting with imaginative thinking, help nurture that part of their thought process by starting the day with a stimulating set of questions - ones that have no right or wrong answer, but allows for all input to be correct. Such as, the "What If?" questions posed by Roger vonOech in his book "A Whack on the Side of the Head." What if trees moved 10 feet every night? What if we all had seven fingers on each hand? What if when you looked in the mirror there became two of you? What if people never needed to sleep? Children can come up with even more "What If" questions once that creative faucet is turned on. Their self-esteem will grow and their interaction to the questions posed will increase as they love this exercise with no fear of ever being wrong with their answers.

NEXT TIME: The next column in this series will offer help in Encouraging Creative Differences.

Bev Twillmann in an award-winning educator, storyteller and workshop presenter who believes in the power of creativity to educate all ages. For more information go to Interpretivevoices.net or contact Bev at [email protected].