Artistic Ability and Creativity
Creativity is a distinctive trait of human excellence in all domains of behavior. Ellis Paul Torrance (Paul Torrance is considered the Father of Creativity, look him up, it is really cool stuff!) Lots of people talk about creativity but it is different from artistic ability. Artistic ability should of course be developed and nurtured. Arts in the public schools are very important and there is all sorts of research out there to show kids who participated in arts (visual arts or performing arts) score higher on test scores, do better in school etc.... Developing ability and skills to paint, draw, sculpt, play a musical instrument are awesome. Artistically talented people are creative, but you don't have to be artistic to be creative! Creativity involves using your skills, talents and imagination to find problems, develop solutions and solve problems. And creativity can be taught. Brainstorming for solutions, looking across categories for connections, elaboration and origi