We need creative kids in the world because
kids who aren't creative grow up to become adults
who conform all the time, and conformity's dangerous .
One of my favorite studies listed a Nobel Prize-
winning scientist.
The question is what did they do differently from their
peers, and one of the best predictors is whether they
have artistic hobbies. Nobel Prize winners in science
are twice as likely to play musical instruments.
They're seven times as likely to draw or paint
as their peers. They're 12 times as likely to write fiction
or poetry. And get this, 22 times as likely
to perform as dancers, actors or yes, magicians.
Einstein is an example of this. His mother wanted him
to learn to play the violin and forced him to take lessons,
which he hated. He didn't like anything that authority
figures forced upon him. It was only a few years later
that he discovered Mozart's Sonatas and fell in love
with them. And he chose to play the violin on his
own accord. Later, he said that his Theory of Relativity
was a musical thought and had he not actually
gotten personally interested in the violin, he never
would've transformed physics.
Here are three ideas for raising highly creative,
original children. You want to focus on values
over rules. When our kids are misbehaving, I hear
myself shout new rule!
Then immediately, whatever that behavior is
is outlawed, and kids, if they follow the rule,
then they end up just basically trying to please adults
which is not good for teaching them to think for
themselves. If they don't follow the rule, then they
rebel. You want them becoming creative because
they're interested in looking at a problem from a new
perspective. Not because you know they're rebelling
against authority. You can help to get kids to think
about themselves as creative by actually praising
their character, not just their behavior.
Instead of saying, oh don't follow the crowd,
or you don't want to be a sheep.
You could actually say you are a non-conformist.
Right. You are somebody who thinks differently.
They're much more likely to internalize it as part of their
identities and then want to be creative again.
One of the best predictors of how creative a
generation becomes is the childrens' books that are
popular when they're gorowing up. Books where
kids are actually doing things that are creative and
haven't been tried before. I think it's a great idea to
read these kinds of books to kids. But we can go a step
further as parents, and ask them for different kinds
of situations that they would confront.
Well gee what do you think Hermione would do
in a situation like this? They're much more
likely then to learn to perspective-take and
to imagine what would I do not only through my
own instincts, but through lots of other people's eyes.
That's a great way to get them to think more creatively.