Creativity Pablo Picasso Once Said: \"Every Child

¶ … Creativity

Pablo Picasso once said: "Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up." The truth in this statement is evident with even a rudimentary examination of any school program, curriculum, or system. From childhood, human beings learn to conform to "leadership" values and expectations, not only in terms of work, but also more generally in terms of what is important to each individual. In school, the role of enforcing conformity falls to teachers and parents. When students leave school, their lecturers, bosses, or team leaders take over. In general life, the government imposes its values and concerns on society. The lack of emphasis on creativity and its importance is also evident in the traditional "starving artist" image. Few parents who wish for their children to work for security and independence in life would encourage their children to choose any type of creative direction as their main profession. Creativity, however, is not only about art. It is vitally important to human beings, because it stimulates happiness, provides for lifelong work satisfaction and fulfillment, and stimulates effective and caring leadership for a bright future.

While there is much joy to be had in creativity as artistic expression, this happiness is certainly not limited to art. The joy of creativity lies in how it stimulates human beings to express themselves in a world that tends to overlook the importance of such expression. Self-expression can occur on many levels. Fashion is one of them. The clothing people wear are often a creative expression of what lies inside them. It is a type of communication. Verbal and written communication is perhaps the most common outlet for creative self-expression. Again, artistic communication does not refer only to poetry, novels, or lectures, although these are certainly included. Communication between loved ones or friends can be artistic as well. Finding a way to say "I love you" in a unique way, for example, is highly creative. In terms of written communication, the way people express themselves in the social media such as Twitter or Facebook can also be highly creative. Whether using fashion, art, poetry, speech, or Facebook posts, to express oneself, such expression leads to a sense of joy and connection. Creative self-expressions highlights a person's unique qualities, but also offers the potential for interpersonal connections on the basis of that uniqueness. This leads to a profound sense of joy.

Another component of joyful living is employment. In general conversation, the idea of "work" is hard labor and something that is set far apart from enjoyment or fulfillment. The main reason for this is, as mentioned above, that children who leave school are all but starve in terms of their individual creativity, especially when it comes to work and income. Hence, while a child's creativity may have survived in the form of a unique fashion sense or poetic communication, it is unlikely that these would be encouraged as a basis for a job search. School leavers are, for the most part, encouraged to enter professions that require following sets of rules rather than using one's creativity to make the best of a day's work. Even in professions where creativity is required in highly advanced roles, such as the legal profession where cases are argued, training for the profession follows conformist rules and facts, with very little creativity involved. Most office jobs are also relatively uncreative. Indeed, few office managers and leaders allow creativity in their followers. This is why work has such as negative connotation in the collective mind. The problem is that unhappy workers result in a lower quality of work and high employee turnover, which in turn costs companies money. Once creativity is offered as a major component of the workplace, job satisfaction will rise dramatically. Creativity is an essential human attribute. This is something that can benefit businesses and individuals providing services to those businesses.

Finally, creativity is not only necessary for personal happiness or job satisfaction, it is also vital in terms of the future and preserving the earth for future generations. Today, the world is facing many challenges, including a looming ecological crisis. This crisis needs creative solutions, since conformity and the status quo is what caused it or at least perpetuated it in the first place. The crisis will not be solved overnight, which means that today's teenagers and young children will probably grow up into the responsibility of doing something to mitigate the crisis. Hence, it will be vital to stimulate creative thinking in children, counter to what the schooling system has done so far. Creative thinking will be required not only in the scientific and ecological fields, but also in general life. Each individual, much like today, will have to make creative and conscious decisions to help save the earth. Each family will have to find ways to continue living comfortably while also avoiding wasteful actions that would exacerbate the crisis.