Arts + Entertainment

The Creativity Crisis

by Jonathan Merritt

“For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining.”

Thus begins a recent cover story by Newsweek reporting the latest results from tests of our nation’s “creativity quotient” (CQ). The tests were designed by E. Alfred Torrence and are widely accepted as the best way to measure CQ. Children who have scored highly on the Torrence test in years past have become innovators, authors, entrepreneurs, software developers, diplomats, and college presidents.

In May, however, a researcher at William and Mary analyzed over 300,000 Torrence scores and observed that creativity has been steadily on the rise. That is, until 1990. Over the last 20 years, CQ scores have tumbled.

“With intelligence, there is a phenomenon called the Flynn effect—each generation, scores go up about 10 points. Enriched environments are making kids smarter,” Newsweek informs. “With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling.”

What’s driving the drop? According to Newsweek, technology and education are particularly nefarious culprits. At home, kids are spending more time watching television and playing video games; at school, our educational system is evaporating the creative juices. Neither of these criticisms is particularly new, but they are informative within the context of the creativity discussion.

Technology has become a favorite target of many culture watchers in our society. In recent years, we’ve witnessed a torrent of criticism regarding video games, television viewership, internet consumption, and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

[Alternative Opinion: Ralph Koster, a video game designer, claims video games actually increases our problem solving abilities.]

With the enactment of “No Child Left Behind,” American education was hoisted onto the hot seat yet again. But some claim that the regulatory program’s testing and accountability techniques have become part of the problem. Other countries from China to Great Britain are introducing "idea generation" as a key component of public education. Meanwhile, the American system focuses on quantifiable results and leaves little room for creative stimulus. If the analysis is correct, we’re systematically training our children to be less creative.

According to Newsweek:

Preschool children, on average, ask their parents about 100 questions a day. Why, why, why—sometimes parents just wish it’d stop. Tragically, it does stop. By middle school they’ve pretty much stopped asking. It’s no coincidence that this same time is when student motivation and engagement plummet. They didn’t stop asking questions because they lost interest: it’s the other way around. They lost interest because they stopped asking questions.

This trend may not seem significant until one considers the centrality of creativity to progress. Without creativity, we can’t find solutions to problems or develop new models of thinking. If creativity disappears, our music, art, and literature will falter and businesses in other places will quickly surpass our own. A recent IBM Poll reported that 60% of CEOs recognize that creativity is the most important leadership quality.

Followers of Jesus feel an addition pinch. One of the attributes of God is creativity, and as image-bearers we have an obligation to cultivate creativity in culture. This is part of our “saltiness” as Christians. We should have masterful artists, revolutionary thinkers, and brilliant scientists among our ranks. In this way, a creativity crisis becomes an opportunity for us to fill a cultural void with creative, redemptive energy and become leaders in those spaces where we’ve lagged embarrassingly behind.

Unfortunately, while some lament the decline of creativity in our culture, very few seem to be proposing ways to restore it. For example, while we should welcome rigorous critiques of technology, the very fact that we continue to consume the things we are criticizing indicates that our words are ringing hollow. Rather than simply cursing this medium, we need new and better alternatives for how to engage the world.

“While our creativity scores decline unchecked, the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses,” declares Newsweek. “The problems we face now, and in the future, simply demand that we do more than just hope for inspiration to strike.”

If we indeed serve the Creator of innovation, shouldn't this issue provoke us to action? Perhaps we can be that hope and inspiration--that creative muse--for which many are now praying.

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Do you think technology and/or the American educational system might be dulling our creative impulses? What can Christians do to restore the brokenness here?

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Editor’s note: The picture above is one of the drawings from the Torrence test in which the subject is given an object within a box on which to draw. While the subject promisingly sketched outside of the box, he chose to draw a hat—an uninspired, common object. Check out Newsweek's gallery of CQ sketches.

Comments

Aaron Brown

In response to the question of whether or not the American educational system might be dulling our creative impulses, I wholeheartedly concur. If anyone has the opportunity, they should read the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It is in this book he discusses how societies (the U.S.) have got into a rut of educating our youth. We use archaic methods that have not changed in the last 50 or so years and it appears our public schools have little interest or are bound by bureaucratic hurdles and cannot or will not fix the problem. The only bright spot with America's education is the magnate and other innovative school programs that (yes, are still public) are exploring new methods as well as extending the school year into the summer months to ensure kids are doing better at learning.

School in America trains our children to think a certain way or according to a certain pattern. I remember when I was in (public) grade school and we would read as a class I would have a difficult time with the homework because I would see something in the story and interpret the story differently from what the "intended" lesson or objective was supposed to be. This led me to get lower marks in my homework.

However, when I was in high school, I was fortunate enough to have an English teacher who encouraged us to think outside of the box and get away from the fringes in our interpretation. She greatly encouraged creativity and fostered it. I was rewarded for my "creative" thinking with better marks than what I had received in grade school.

Does technology dull our creative impulses? I don't think so, personally. Watch small children play with an iPhone, iPod touch, DVD player, computer, etc., and there is nothing but wonder and curiosity and stick-to-it-ness filling their being. Heck, I need them to operate some of those gadgets for me. I think technology allows children to want to grasp innovation and keep them engaged.

The problem may really lie in our shorter attention spans. I heard a statistic from one of my professors in my graduate program's creative thinking class that states our attention is changed to a new image approximately every two minutes. My question is, do people still think deeply and intentionally about life? Do they meditate on things that bring them joy and peace? It is in these moments of peace that we our minds feel free to "generate" new ideas and be creative.

Most people have a eureka moment while taking a shower. Why is that? Two things: they are being kinetic with their hands by washing their hair and body (which stimulates thought) as well as they are a peaceful relaxed state and not pondering anything too significant. These two incidents occurring at once allow us to be creative and innovative.

If my premise that people are not at peace and that they lack peace, then I would say that as Christians we need to find peace in our own lives as well as offer peace to others who lack peace. Obviously, I sound like a fundamental Christian (probably because I am), but peace can only be found in Christ. If you search for peace you will never find it, but if you search for Jesus you will find peace. Jesus tells us to seek God and not for things (Matt. 6:33). It is in this passage that Jesus shares a discourse of telling people to stop seeking things and to start seeking God.

In our consumer driven society, we have all we need and we still do not have peace. We're not happy. We lack purpose, especially if we think purpose is accumulating more things.

As Christians, we need to share true peace with people.

Jonathan Merritt

Aaron,

You say you don't think technology is the problem, but you think our short attention spans may be part of the problem. What is behind our short attention spans? Do you think technology might be contributing to that?

Jm

Aaron Brown

Jonathan

Yes, I think technology does help shorten our attention span, however, that is if we are considering technology to be TV/multi-media. I think TV, ads, some aspects of internet marketing, etc., shorten our attention spans. I personally do not consider television viewing as technology (even though it technically is) (When I think of technology I think of mechanical innovations, the space station orbiting the earth, and advances in medical instrumentation). Interestingly enough, I was viewing a YouTube video this morning and began counting the screen shot changes. It was approximately every two seconds.

I would be curious to see if anyone has conducted studies on why and how TV/multi-media developed the concept of changing a screen shot every two seconds. A great question would be: Did TV show developers come up with the idea to create rapidly changing scenes in response to viewers' short attention spans or did short attention spans develop from rapidly changing scenes on television? Another great question would be: do people living in third world countries with limited access to TV/multi-media/technology suffer from short attention spans or is this a western issue?

If we are considering computer technology and gaming as technology (which I do consider at least the former technology), I can not help but think you need a longer attention span or a greater focus or a greater interest to continue engaged with the technology. I say this because, again, children and teenagers can stay engaged with their iPhones, etc., for extended periods of time.

(However, I may be mistaken in my idea of engagement if the individuals are changing applications every two minutes or jumping from application to application incessantly. I may be confusing engagement with the technology/device for engagement with the applications.) As far as gaming is concerned, I lack little interest in gaming and have zero interest for multi-player games such as World of Warcraft and similiar on-line gaming. I think it takes a tremendous focus to stay engaged for hours on end. However, I may be mistaking focus and engagement for addiction.

I am also curious to see if reading and comprehension levels/scores have dropped as television and gaming has progressed through the past couple of decades.

All in all, if TV/multi-media is indeed considered technology, then yes, I believe it shortens our attention spans.

Gabe Lyons

Creativity is on a downturn because we lack imagination.

I read an interesting piece yesterday describing the types of toys children play with today. It used to be when we were children any noise that came from playing with toys was created by the child, not the toy. We had to make it happen; clanging cymbals together, making our own siren noise for the fire truck, etc. Today, the top toys children play with make the noises for them at the push of a button. These toys are meant to entertain our children and our imaginations are going to waste.

In contrast, Mark Foreman, (the father of Jon Foreman--lead singer and front man for Switchfoot and perhaps one of the most creative, deep people I've conversed with), once described his routine in raising his children. He had the goal of unleashing their imaginations. Every night, he'd read to them the Chronicles of Narnia. He'd wrestle with them, look them in the eye and tell them he believed in them. Jon reflected that he got through the Narnia series at least three times by the time he was headed out of high school. Mark and Jan's goal was to work hard to not constrain their imaginations...and arguably it produced a few very imaginative and creative human beings in the form of their children.

For our family, we are working hard to cut the screen time and allow space for our children to use their imaginations. It actually takes a concerted effort just to create dead space. Its way easier not to. For us, sabbath has become one obvious time where we can turn off the technology and create space for reflection. As Christians, we have a responsibility to lead society in this way. Restoring creativity begins with restoring ourselves.

word

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Steve

And what of the institutional churches' complicity in squelching creativity because of its insistence on interpretive "purity?" Are there not scores of people led to believe that their creative energies in the area of science (in particular) go against (and are therefore sinful) a particular literal interpretation of Scripture?

"Love the Lord with your whole heart, soul, and mind."

Just thinking!

Mike Weaver

Interesting post Jonathan. Thanks for sharing it with us. Thanks for the heads up about the Newsweek article.

In my opinion, creativity is in decline because our country has faced and is threatening a second recession. People are scared and searching for certainty, a place to stand. The rub with creativity is that while it's way to find solutions out of a particular situation it also tends to create anxiety in people and systems. Creativity is generally looked at as a luxury rather than as vital to progress as the hard sciences seem to be. What generally is cut when a school system experiences financial difficulty? Music, theater, art, etc...Bottom line, creativity simply isn't safe because it challenges what is in order to move to what can/will be. As a country we are retreating to safety and the status quo.

I also hear people say, "I'm not creative" as if there are certain creative type of people. Nonsense. We are all creative, just in different ways. If we match colors, we're creative. Conversations are creative simply because they are not scripted.

I see this all the time in churches who value tradition over mission. We are notorious for throwing a wet blanket on new and creative ideas. Creative pastors/leaders or others in a congregation threaten the established culture and are generally cast aside for the sake of "tradition" or as Steve said, "insistence on the interpretive purity" of Scripture.

My two cents...

Ines Franklin

Where in the world is creativity growing?

I get the sense that humanity is loosing its creativity, not just the U.S. No official poll here. I find it interesting that my children are enjoying the same songs that my generation loved. Old songs are being revived if only slightly in the name of creativity. Not! The arts were loosing creativity some time ago. I think it happened when someone found that a toilet is a work of art. Few have the patience to learn to draw or paint or sculpt. Perfectionism is the decease of the day. The world is becoming our theater. Reality shows are more sought out than imaginative expression. We are all actors now...not need to go to a play. Dance is perhaps the only expression that seems to keep some of it's ground...not so creative though. Thank goodness people still love to dance. They are not so good at it though. "So you think you can dance"-type shows narrow dance to a few expressions leaving other creative and folk dances out. What I see going out is our right and privilege to "draw outside the lines" to celebrate our Lord with a carefree dance, to watch with wonder the imaginative and brilliant creation of a story and to listen to the mystery of music as it melts our hearts. Bring creativity back, OH LORD, bring it back.

Chuck Eaton

A couple of observations -

I have been strongly encouraged to change the strategy or focus of my teaching every 7 minutes which is about the time between commercials. I'm part of the attention span problem.

Why would children need to be creative in their play (children's work which is now dominated by sports), when it is planned out for them and regulated by rules from which one may not deviate?

It's hard to be creative when everything is instant. Mac and cheese can be made with real cheese and it doesn't even have to be orangy yellow. But, it does take longer.

If a child is creative and they fail . . . well we can't have that now can we.

Aaron Brown

Gabe

I absolutely dig your assertion. I can remember when I was a small child and my father "making up" bed time stories for my brother and me. My father was a very imaginative person who read a lot and opened us up to science fiction that was futuristic and creative.

I do not have children yet, but reminiscing about my father's bed time stories leads me to wonder if parents are engaged in fostering their children's imaginations as you described through the Foreman family (which I think everyone should take a cue from). Overall, it seems that parents are expecting teachers to improve their childrens' cognitive abilities and shrug off their personal responsibility to foster imaginative/creative thinking in their own children. Do parents even encourage their children to dream big, shoot for the moon, and give it everything they have to live a fulfilling life? Or have parents lost their own zeal (which you aludded to in your post) due to forlorn dreams and thus don't encourage their children to dream/think/imagine big?

All in all, I think the big idea of raising imaginative children is "time spent." More time needs to be spent away from the television (the strategy your family is currently utilizing) and instead be spent with the parents creating an environemnt of encouragement and empowerment.

Great points, Gabe.

steve K

The abject abandonment of our children to public school education, I think, is largely to blame for the loss of creativity. In my experience (my wife and I raised 7 children) the public school system panders to the lowest common denominator. Children are largely treated as clones and there is little stimulus or encouragement for those who don't fit in.

The answer in my opinion is to take our children out of the government school system and home school them.

We have long ago lost our ability to influence the content and techniques used in the public schools and have abandoned our God given responsibility to educate our children ourselves. We wring our hands over the atrocities of sex education but miss the fact that we immerse our kids daily in a culture that is largely anti God and and anti Christ.

Why do we do this? To pursue the American dream of course. We must have the bigger house, more expensive car, the exotic vacation and on and on it goes. If it takes two incomes to acheive, well, I guess that's just the price we have to pay.

Some of us are teaching our children about Jesus and what it means to follow him but willingly submit our kids to the hostile environment of public school where Christian values are under overt and covert attack. What message do you think we are sending our children? Let me ask you, if what we believe as parents about Christ and His values is so important why do we allow our children to drown in our pluralistic and syncretistic public schools? I think the message received by the majority of our children is that our Christian values aren't really that important to us. Really, our values are just one of a buffet of choices presented as equivalent in our schools.

Home schooling provides, when done well, the opportunity at least, of the most creative of environments. Time can be taken to customize the learning experience. Children can explore a multitude of extra curricular activities which encourage creativity. I am personally acquainted with many parents who home school their children. These children are amazing! They can and are willing to converse with adults on an adult level far sooner than their government school educated counter parts. Most importantly, they are firmly established in the faith.

How can we expect a child to recognize (and reject) the subtle components of a Godless institution when they themselves may not be regenerate or not adequately educated in the ways of the Lord. I think many of us are just throwing our children to the wolves. Then we are dismayed and confused when, upon turning 18, they abandon the practices of the faith.

I encourage parents today to decide which is most important the pursuit of the American Dream or the pursuit of a Godly education for our children.

Todd W

I recommend those discussing this topic check out "The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains" by Nicholas Carr for a thoroughly researched treatment of this topic.

The thing is, a technology is any tool that is used to extend human faculties. The seismic shift from linear print in books to hyperlinked text on networked devices is proving to have a pronounced impact on how our brains process information at a fundamental level. Carr delves into the most current research in this area. (I'd also recommend Shane Hipps' video from a past Q and his books.)

Education and technology are inextricably linked in terms of how people learn. The technology used in schools has changed rapidly with the advent of hypertext and search algorithms. While there is much discussion about an ineffective or uninspiring educational system, perhaps it is the technology we use to mediate learning and information that is having more of an impact on imagination (among many other things) in an age where online education is seen by some as a savior.

Case in point, some of my students (I'm a professor at a small college) are having increasing difficulty understanding the concept of plagiarism and how it applies to cutting and pasting their term papers together. This goes beyond willful cheating for a few students. They truly don't understand how what they are doing is not proper research or citation. Any other teachers out there noticing this? Plagiarism has been around for a long time, but this seems different.

All this to say, I recommend Carr's book as an important perspective on this issue.

I also appreciate Gabe's parenting tips for sparking imagination in the young.

Gus

Given that, when it comes to creativity, christians have lagged behind the non-christian world for the last 5 decades at least (my living memory); have generally been suspicious of most things new; but been happy to copy most trends albeit a few years late, its a bit rich to suggest they might be concerned about this drop, let alone have anything to offer that might address it. (heck that was a long sentence).

lets be honest, christianity is always more in sync with status quo than with avant-garde. I suspect part of the reason is that 'God as judge' has outweighed 'God as creator', certainly in the minds of evangelicals. This leads to a primary desire to keep God happy by not offending him with our behaviour, rather than a desire to please him with our creativity. Until this changes we will largely be seen as pale and safe mimics of cultural creativity.

Gabe Lyons

@Gus, good thoughts. Hopefully we can see the move from trying to be "relevant to" to truly leading by our work and creativity played out in society. Unfortunately, many people think innovation and creativity means having the ability to adopt the latest cultural trends into the church (as you have properly pointed out) when in fact that is the exact opposite of creativity. As the church, we have an amazing opportunity to blend the creativity of people with a multiplicity of talents and passions to restore whats broken in the world--including creativity. I think people are looking for the kind of leaders who are willing to unleash it within their faith communities. Rick McKinley at Imago Dei Portland (at Q this year we will have a pre-gathering day at his church exploring how they think about their role in creatively contributing to the common good of their city), Chris Seay at Ecclesia Houston and Jon Tyson at Trinity Grace Houston are just a few of many who I think do this very, very well.

Sajan George

I won't disagree with the original premise that the "creativity quotient" is going down in the US with the most pronounced decline in our children. However, I would suggest that technology could in fact reverse this trend rather than contribute to it, if it is unleashed in customizing and differentiating education for our children. All of our strategies for reforming education are very uncreative -- extending the school day, extending the school year, firing and hiring teachers, changing printed curriculum every couple of years -- thereby resulting in uncreative products (our children). However, technology exists today to customize education for each child, tapping into their unique learning style, capacity, motivation and pace. Think about how few things in society from our work to our entertainment to our social activities would be "one size fits all" and yet we continue to educate our children in a one-size fits all modality, preparing them for an agrarian society that no longer exists. Our technology injections into public schools have also lacked creativity -- smart boards -- that do not transform the teaching and learning process. What if we equipped students to carve their own path to reaching the same high standards, leveraging customized online curriculum and digital teaching with in class teachers and student learning? We could change the role of teacher from lecturer to facilitator, and the role of student from passive learner to active learner. See Harvard Bus School Professor Clayton Christensen's book "Disrupting Class" for more on how technology can powerfully be leveraged to unleash creativity in our nation's classrooms.

John Trombley

@Todd W

I would like to address your point on plagiarism. I too teach at a small liberal arts college but probably a few years younger. It would seem that my cohort of emerging adults has had such life experiences as they come to believe that once knowledge has been created it is no longer property of the creator but the property of humanity. Therefore plagiarism is an alien concept since it is essentially being charged for theft of something you, as a member of humanity, own.

As a novice (as by default all children are) being creative in an electronic situation requires the use of intellectual material created by another creator. For instance a video with slides set to music. I would contend that the final video is a work of art in of itself. The photos for the slides and the music would likely need to be obtained from another creator. Since obtaining permissions for each piece of intellectual material is prohibitively onerous for the novice. Due to this, creating such a work of art is intrinsically illegal. So to things stifling our children's creativity I would also like to add having an opt-out (as opposed to a opt-in) based copyright law.

@Chuck Eaton

With respect to the hyper-scheduling of our children's lives -- Aman.

Gus Row

Just want to go back to the original premise about creativity quotients declining. I see it and I dont. Some of the young people I work with certainly seem less "creative" than my own childhood memories.

However, my grandchildren, age 11 and 9, and of different ethnicities, hang out at my place after school. They watch National Geographic, History Channel, and the Cartoon Network (their choices). They play games on Wii. In between they build Lego or play soccer in the yard. Then they ask my wife to teach them how to make carrot cake. And if they can coax me, I have to join in a fantasy game on the back deck, usually involving imaginary sharks or alligators inhabiting my lawn.

So I'm left mind boggled by the creative spark, in comparison with my own middle class 50's-60's childhood. And their creativity certainly seems to owe a lot to their Gen X, non christian parents.

Of course two kids dont trump a big survey. The stats must be right. Unless the CQ questions were largely the same as in past decades. After all, if you use the same basic questions from the 60's, to assess christians commitment to church, or their ethical beliefs, you're bound to conclude there's been a decline.

But that may not be the case. Maybe the way we assess creativity needs a revamp

L.L. Barkat

Creativity is one of my favorite subjects. And somehow this statistic makes me feel good... "60% of CEOs recognize that creativity is the most important leadership quality," since creativity is something I really try to create space for, for my kids and for me.

Hey, on a different note, thanks for saying a quick hello to me on Scott C's phone the other day. He makes me laugh. :)

dthaase

This is a wonderful post - I believe some of what is behind this is a loss of wonder. We need to foster wonder in our educational endeavors and challenge children to explore and strengthen a holy imagination. Too often eduction is passive when it ought to be exploratory and active. We need minds alert to the truth and goodness and beauty in this word. Ephesians 5 comes to mind..."Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you..."

Here's my invitation to wonder: http://dthaase-lines.blogspot.com/p/wonder.html

Justin

interesting article.

if we are worried about our kids/next generation not being creative.... turn off the tv, read with them, draw with them, go on photo shoots with them.... teach them to participate and lead and not be a watcher of what other people create.

i constantly need to remind myself to do this....

cheers!

Jonathan Merritt

Couldn't have said it better myself, Justin. I wonder how much better our homes would be if we tossed our televisions to the curb.

K-eM

"Necessity is the mother of invention" is a phrase I've heard and said a lot. And it's true.

I grew up in Africa. People there are poorer than in the West and they are incredibly creative. Kids I played with made toys from things that we throw away here in the West. We couldn't get whatever we wanted at the market, so Mom and Dad showed us how to create and make things we wanted or needed.

Could it be that our excess, having so much that we can afford to make everything disposable, being able to find anything we want when we want it removes the necessity of invention for so many people?

Creativity is a muscle and that requires exercise and practice to keep in shape. Perhaps we're out of shape.

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