The articles in this issue of "New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development" nicely summarize recent findings about creativity and development. This commentary underscores some of the key ideas and puts them into a larger context (i.e., the corpus of creativity research). It pinpoints areas of agreement (e.g., the need to take…

This article attempts to address the question of how to make gifted education more equitable and productive by shifting priorities to talent development for all rather than confining itself to the "gifted." I first present an overview of political and ethical considerations in selecting a few for talent or creativity development. I then…

From an early age, so much emphasis goes into teaching children the fundamentals of color theory, in particular the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue. Toys, building blocks, furniture, and so many other items used in a preschool environment are manufactured in these three colors. Yet, recent research has uncovered that babies as young as…

Background: The high school production offers our students a creative way to develop their literacy, numeracy and social skills to mention a few. Why then do we permit anyone to teach the production and usually expect teachers to volunteer? Purpose: To do research into why the school production should be adopted as an integral part of our…

Mitchel Resnick is a researcher, inventor, and professor at MIT's Media Laboratory in Cambridge, MA, and the founder of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT. He is the lead innovator behind many cutting-edge learning technologies and projects for children, including the Computer Clubhouse, PicoCrickets, and the wildly successful consumer…

In this article, Boldt considers decisions teachers must make about the value of children's writing as a form of play in primary classrooms. She offers a brief history of the framing of this question at 1966 Dartmouth Conference on English, focusing particularly on the perspective of Jimmy Britton. She highlights the relationship between Britton's…

In this article, the author discusses the poetics of teaching. She states that a poetics of teaching privileges not only mastery but innovation--not only the transmission of existing knowledge, but also productivity and change. As their media for experimentation and expression, poetic teachers can employ all of the many materials at their disposal…

The authors' recent theoretical work has focused on developing the construct of mini-c creativity and illustrating how all levels of creative performance follow a trajectory that starts with novel and personally meaningful interpretations (mini-c), which can then progress to intrapersonally judged novel and meaningful contributions (little-c) and…

In this article, the author focuses on the development of a young poet from Bulgaria, Indiana Pehlivanova, who experienced an explosive growth as a poet. Activating memory, myth, and reality, Pehlivanova's imagination wove together what the author terms as "the finest lines I have ever witnessed in youth poetry."

Many graduate creative writing programs depend on "star" faculty who have been hired more because of their professional reputation as writers than because of their commitment to teaching. As a result, such programs often fail to provide reflection on teaching that would truly serve their students. One step toward alleviating this problem is to…

The article suggests that creativity is the interaction of external and internal input, resulting in a unique, purposive, and communicable product. Facilitation of creativity is considered. (CL)

The article examines the concept of creativity from a philosophical point of view and discusses how to teach creativity through humor and metaphor. (Author/DLS)

Discusses the goals of creativity training and provides a number of introductory exercises to develop student potential. (SK)

Suggestions are given to parents for encouraging creativity in children such as: respecting "wild and wacky" questions and responses, helping children understand the difference between making up tales and telling harmful lies, creating environments in which mistakes are not only valued but encouraged, and avoiding making comparisons in direct or…

Argues against the view that creativity must sometimes be realized at the expense of the quality of the work produced, perceiving this dichotomy between creativity and quality as a false one based upon an erroneous theory of creative process. Sees creativity and quality as intimately connected. (DMM)