Deadlines & Creativity

This video exemplifies what deadlines can do to creativity. I realize that some people work well, sometimes better, under pressure. But young minds usually panic under timed assessments, whether it's regurgitating multiplication tables in under five minutes or writing an essay in fifty. In this case, it's a piece of art.

When you give a kid a task like this one (see video), the product's quality (and the student's performance) will obviously parallel how much time they're given. The more time they're given, the better the product. When I say better, I mean higher quality. You'll see what I mean in the video.

This little experiment brings up the argument of quality over quantity. This is precisely why I often give my students two nights to do a homework assignment as opposed to one. *Note to parents: a school or teacher should not be judged by the volume of homework they assign. Homework should be thought provoking. It should force students into situations that elicit critical thinking and creative output. In this context, I define output as the brain's ability to produce. *Note to teachers: if the brain is absorbing input (the teacher's constant lecturing), it cannot produce output (the student's critical thinking and creative problem solving).

When you walk into an elementary school, you see creative art projects done with recyclables. You see paper bags that have evolved into puppets, all with the help of scissors and glue and a crayon or two. When you walk into a high school, you're lucky to see a creative project of any kind displayed anywhere. There is a simple explanation for this. Younger students are given the time to think, the time to create, the time to problem solve while using creativity. They're given what I call Brain Time. Older students spend most of their day listening to teachers, absorbing words and explanations while copying notes from the board. I'm not saying this is the case everywhere. But it's more common than not.      

I believe in giving students quality Brain Time. 

I believe in letting them produce creative output.   

I believe in letting the clock face come to life.