Why creativity is essential in education?

In my experience as an educator of high school students, what I have found is that being creative is paramount for engaging the learner and ensuring that he or she becomes creative themselves.

As a conventional classroom teacher I was involved in designing and creating learning resources on a consistent basis.  Naturally, my knowledge and skills improved as I went along but what I found was the need to create learning experiences that engaged my audience, particularly teenagers, who can be your harshest critic if something is not right or is "boring," over the long-term, as units could last an entire term (10 - 11 weeks).  

This meant creating resources and activities that engaged multiple ways of learning (i.e. visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) and, most of all, were not predictable.  The resources had to be aesthetically pleasing and professional.  I would try to ensure consistency of font and text size for congruency, whilst also using images, colour and content to engage the learner. My behaviour was not only beneficial for my self, as it made my lessons more interesting and worthwhile, my students also benefited as it encouraged them to exercise their creative talents, such as creating their own resources, producing presentations, and making links with the outside world.

As I was a major player in curriculum development within my department, I tried to ensure that the assessment, which is the reason the learner is engaged in the process, was authentic and "real-world."  I had two teenage sons of my own and if they felt an assessment task was not applicable to their daily lives, they were much less likely to want to complete the task.  This proved the greatest challenge as how does one make Shakespeare's Macbeth appear relevant to students living hundreds of years after the play was written and performed.  

Well, after much discussion with my friends, colleagues, students, and family members (I like to involve everyone), I found that the themes in Macbeth were not only present in contemporary literature, film and video games, but they were prevalant.  From Game of Thrones, which most boys in the senior years had either watched or knew about, or the Gladiator, which many girls had either watched or were familiar with, to Disney's The Lion King, which most students had watched as children, the theme of ambition and how it can destroy an individual and his/her relationships was still as relevant as it was all those years ago.  With this mind the assessment required students to make links to contemporary film and literature when analysing Macbeth.  They would put themselves in the role of the producer and how he/she would ensure contemporary relevance.  This resulted in students making links with film and literature that they enjoyed, and being able to share their ideas with modern audiences, all the while learning how the themes in Macbeth are universal.

This experience of creating assessment that was relevant and engaging illustrates the importance of being creative when developing learning experiences.  The purpose is not just about bestowing knowledge to be poured into empty cups, as this encourages passivity, but to encourage creativity in the learner, so he or she will not be passive but will actively create themselves.