INSPIRING CREATIVITY

Roy Kridelbaugh finished his art project, a Non-Objective Sculpture Maquette that remained untitled.

Jessie Beasley read material on Harriet Tubman during eightth-grade English class.

Emily Limbaugh talked to students about "The Moses of Her People" by Harriet Tubman during English class.

Local teachers say creativity is not a skill that can be taught. It can, however, be enhanced and developed by teachers paying close attention to the cues their students send them.

"It's like athletics -- either a kid can do the long jump or he can't," said Cape Girardeau Central Junior High art teacher Lawrence Brookins. "We can help them develop the skill, but the kids have to bring a lot to the table."

Brookins said creativity is essential to art, but not all art students are in touch with their creative sides. Boundaries are not set in stone with art assignments, he said, because creativity is a necessity. However, some students have a real problem with movable boundaries.

"For what I do, (creativity) is very important," he said. "I give them basic guidelines, but I always assure them they have a lot of room to work. We teach critical thinking, and that's about as close as you can get to teaching creativity. But nowadays, you almost have to teach them how to do that, because they've had so much laid out for them in the past."

Brookins' co-worker Emily Limbaugh agreed. Limbaugh coordinates the gifted students' program and teaches eighth-grade English at the junior high school. She said students often stifle their creativity because they have only been concerned with meeting the guidelines of an assignment.

"We make them conform too often," Limbaugh said. People's creativity is their communication. They're telling you something about themselves.

Even so, both Limbaugh and Brookins said that without some boundaries, creative students would not be able to complete a project. They said creative students often are unable to stay on task when they are allowed free rein.

"Some students can't narrow their focus because of creativity," Brookins said. "It's just like their cup runneth over. We have to try to help them stay focused."

Limbaugh seldom has to stifle a student's creativity in the gifted program because one of the purposes of that class is to encourage creativity. However, there are times when a specific guideline is needed, and students have to do projects within the boundaries of that guideline.

For example, Limbaugh said some of her students have been very creative in the past with the written evaluations they turn in at the end of the semester. She remembered a student wrote in play form, and another wrote a poem. But the evaluation is sent to the board of education, and it has a required format.

"I had to call them in and they had to rewrite their evaluations using the format," she said. "I thought what they did was terrific and incredibly creative, and I sent both forms of the evaluations to the board office so they could see it -- I thought that was important. But they were required to do it a certain way, and I had to follow those guidelines."

Brookins and Limbaugh have heard of a number of courses and seminars offered to teachers to help them develop creativity in their students. They said probably the best way for teachers to enhance creativity was to teach more creatively.

"I think that for teachers to bring out the creativity a little bit more, they need to teach more creatively," Limbaugh said. "I think in almost everyone of these classes, there's something very creative going on, and that's good. You can always improve it. "I almost hate to let my students know this, but I don't teach them creativity as much as they teach me."