Essay

“Unleash Your Creativity” in Education

by Jill Tomey

Einstein once famously said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” His purpose was to raise our understanding of how we can combine our intellect and imagination. Einstein valued the ability to think creatively as a fundamental aspect of intelligence; he suggested that it’s not merely about following the status quo, established rules, or formulas but rather about being open-minded, exploring new possibilities, and enjoying the process of discovery.

Creativity is increasingly important because we need solutions to problems that we have never experienced before; we cannot solve today’s problems with yesterday’s thinking. Imagine how we can even be creative about being creative. Rather than changing school curricula, we can create classroom climates conducive to creativity by adopting the learning principles of Montessori education across all courses. All teachers can enhance students’ creativity by fostering a supportive and inclusive classroom climate by focusing on self-directed learning, exploration, experimentation, and divergent thinking.

Educators can build creativity capability not only by adopting the Montessori principles but also by refuting myths about creativity.

1. Myth #1: Not everyone can be creative.

Everyone can be creative. It is not just the Nobel Prize winners who are creative. It is the rest of us, the everyday people who, together by taking responsibility for learning about creativity, can have a significant impact,

2. Myth #2: Process kills creativity.

A process can provide structure, guardrails to clarify goals (timeline, resources available, and desired outcomes), yet leave the “how” open. The capacity to direct one’s own work through Montessori principles enables teams to share responsibility, self-organize, generate ideas, and collaborate.

3. Myth #3: Pay drives creativity.

It is not money; it is the passion to fulfill a purpose that is a fundamental human need.

This article is based on the HBR article titled “Your Employees Have All the Creativity You Need. Let Them Prove It.”