The Emotional Environment
As important as it is to have a physical
environment conducive to creativity,
it’s equally important to create the right
emotional environment. This means
fostering a home environment that
encourages and values creativity and that
minimizes criticisms and judgment of
one’s creative endeavors. It’s easy to see
how being critical of a child’s art work or
performance can kill creativity, but even
positive judgments can be harmful. When
you praise the product instead of the effort,
kids learn to place a value judgement on
their work not based on their own likes
and expressions but on what is pleasing
to you. Therefore, their own creativity
is stifled. In addition, some children may
start to create purely for praise and not
for their own enjoyment.
For example, let’s say Annie’s teacher
holds up her drawing to the class and says,
“Everyone, look how beautiful Annie’s
drawing of the garden is.” The other
children then try to copy Annie’s picture
to win that same kind of praise rather
than using their own styles and ideas.
Their creativity was hampered so they
could copy the “worthy” drawing.
54