Fostering a Creative Environment
During the holiday season so many parents are hunting the internet or running from store to store searching for the newest, most exciting, and funnest toys. But something that many parents forget is the power of a child’s imagination, and how many kids can do a lot more with a cardboard box than they can with the newest, most exciting, funnest toys on the market. Toys are built for a specific purpose and they have a specific way to be used, keeping a child entertained for a couple weeks before they get bored of it. Cardboard boxes offer an infinite number of choices, truly unlimited possibilities every time they interact with it.
Growing up, many kids are open to playful exploration. They ask “What is it?” and “What can I do with it?” They are prone to having fun and learning along the way. Many 1st graders use about 50% of their time as constructive play. It’s fun yes, but it’s also an incredibly powerful way to learn. Play is not anarchy, play has rules and follows a kind of script that’s been agreed upon by those at play. It’s often this co-negotiation that leads to productive play where kids understand how to play and agree upon it together.
There are also rules about when to play and how to transition in and out of play. Good teachers spend a lot of time thinking about how to move kids through experiences that allow them to playfully explore new environments, and then regrouping to process the learning. We often hear that there’s a time to mess around and there’s a time to get serious. These stages are present in the creative process, often seen as divergent and convergent thinking.
Learning is a byproduct of play. But as kids go through the school system, access to creative materials and time to play get taken away. Students get programmed to fit into the bigger system rather than treated as individuals that are allowed to explore, learn for themselves, and be creative. IDEO, Apple, Amazon and other creative companies have now realized that it is so important to shock people out of their normal ways of thinking and help their employees forget the adult behaviors that get in the way of their ideas.
These companies often have symbols in the workplace that remind people to be playful and relaxed and comfortable with the people they are working with. For example, Google has a fireman’s pole in their New York office and a dinosaur covered in flamingos named Stan at their office in California. Often these creative companies use these symbols and other practices to help incorporate new rules that allow their employees to help break out of old rules, teaching the importance of forgetting in-order to relearn how to practice exploratory play.
So parents, I am not suggesting that you solely give your kids cardboard boxes for Christmas, but maybe the next time you un-warp a gift, try breaking out of the “old rules” and play with the box first.
