<p>I totally agree that many kids today are less creative than years past. It’s not that they don’t have the capacity to be creative. IMO–too many parents push kids into scheduled activities to the point where they don’t have much down time to self-explore the world. Any free time the kids do have, they fill up with video games as a means to escape into their own private world.</p>
<p>Remember back to when we were kids. I lived in a small town (still do) and the square block around our home was our own little neighborhood where the kids in that neighborhood could roam free and create adventures. From sun up to 5:00pm (when the Moms would yell or whistle for us to get home for dinner) the world was ours to create. None of us had much money so the kids in the neighborhood would create something out of nothing. We would turn multiple cardboard refridgerator boxes into elaborate castles and houses. We would collect old pieces of wood and build forts and treehouses. When we did this sort of stuff, we didn’t have our parents standing there directing us on how to build the projects. We all just sort of figured it out what worked by trial and error/cause and effect. Today, many parents would simply hire someone to build a playhouse or tree fort.</p>
<p>We actually looked forward to a Sunday trip to the dump. The kids would scatter and try to gather up the best “junk” to bring home as material for another project. Wheels and axles were coveted. We would take the junk home and create our own toys. We would turn the junk into go carts (powered by gravity, of course), scooters, and our own version of skateboards. Today, parents would simply buy the skateboard or other wheeled toy.</p>
<p>The neighborhood kids were always trying to make a buck. It wasn’t like it is today where kids are given money for nonessential things (candy, toys, etc.). We would create our own businesses. A bunch of us would pool our money together and walk down to the five and dime store. We would buy packages of white tshirts and dye. We would tie dye the t-shirts, string them out on a line in the front yard, and sell them for a profit to the summer tourists. We would also get rides to the Strawberry fields where we would spend hours picking strawberries in the heat. When we got home, we would fill our red wagons with the berries, pull the wagon into town, and try to sell the berries to the local Restaurants. Whatever the restaurants didn’t buy, we would sell at a makeshift stand on the sidewalk.</p>
<p>Other times, we would create artwork and have an art sale. We would spend weeks making our masterpieces. Then, the neighborhood kids would get together and have an art sale-----sell our stuff for pennies. At the end of the day, we would all pool our change together and walk down to the corner store. If we were lucky, we would have enough to buy a couple of popsicles (the twin popsicles so 2 kids could share one popsicle) and bubble gum. </p>
<p>We would also spend weeks writing plays, and making sets (out of cardboard, wood, junk from the junkyard, old rags and sheets, whatever leftover paint was in the basements). We would change a quarter for admission and put on the play for the neighborhood. This was all kid driven—no parents whatsoever involved in the process.</p>
<p>Then, there were those really quiet down times where we would lie on the grass and look up a the clouds. We would spend hours making up stories based on the shapes of the clouds–stories of pirate ships, monsters, horses, carnivals, etc. One kid would start the story and another would add onto it. Before we knew it, an hour or so had past.</p>
<p>Instead of video games, we would make up our own games–even create the pieces of the games. </p>
<p>What parents of today may see as poverty and lack of structure, we saw as freedom and exploration. We never knew we were poor. We were too busy engaging in the world–creating our own entertainment, creating our own little businesses, and engaging with people face-to-face (rather than on the internet). We were busy figuring out things on our own–trial and error with the cost of a lot of skinned knees and broken bones. But, we survived and each adventure taught us how to adapt and overcome obstacles in very creative ways.</p>
<p>We created our own fun, adventures, and opportunities. Every self-directed adventure taught us new and creative solutions. Today, parents seem to schedule everything for their kids. Maybe this isn’t a bad thing, but it sure is different from years gone by.</p>
<p>IMO–less creativity is not only a by-product of the “teaching to the test” mentality. A large part may be due to the children’s lives outside of the school setting.</p>