Where children are allowed to be inventors
«Children, what annoys you in everyday life?» Sadija and Lukas have a clear answer: they don't want to be so tired all the time. But what can they do as nine-year-olds to solve this problem? Listen to their parents and go to bed earlier? No, thank you. There has to be another way.
After four project days at the «Creative Kids» Edulab in Basel, the two fourth-graders have worked out their own solution and developed a prototype: It's a kind of wheel of fortune that they or their parents can spin in the evening. And depending on where the nose gets stuck, it says: «In 20 minutes» or «at 7.30 pm» or even «go straight to bed». What the wheel says goes. And it's much easier to accept than when your parents send you to bed.
Thinking like in Silicon Valley
Getting from the problem of «tiredness» to this playful solution requires creative thinking and many intermediate steps. The children in class 4e at Gellert school in Basel learn the «design thinking» method during a project week outside of school at Edulab. This is a method that is familiar from the business world and is particularly popular in Silicon Valley.
It's so cool here, I don't even want to go to school anymore.
Ellen, 4th grade
Design thinking is taught in a child-friendly way at Edulab. The aim is to encourage children to think creatively and develop their own solutions. Matt Knaus, one of the coaches at Edulab, explains: «We ask about the problem that is the cause of the known problem. We keep asking why until we arrive at a problem for which the children can come up with solutions.»
One problem - different solutions
In the case of Sadija and Lukas, it sounds something like this:
«I'm tired all the time.»
«Why?»
«Because I don't sleep enough.»
«Why?»
«I can't get to bed.»
«Why?»
«Because it annoys me that my parents decide everything.»
«Aha! What could you do here?»
The solutions and proposed solutions can look very different, even if many children deal with the same problems. «Tiredness, arguments in the family and school lunches that don't taste good - these things come up again and again,» says Knaus.
What is design thinking?
The process alternates between very structured phases and those in which ideas are brainstormed freely. The idea generation phase is strictly separated from the evaluation of ideas according to clear criteria. Prototypes for possible solutions are then created, which in turn are tested and improved. The idea is to directly involve all those involved in the process so that their needs are not ignored, but that people and their needs are placed at the centre.
Ellen, Lia and Stella have also chosen the problem of «tiredness». They are currently sticking panda ears on their friendly alarm clock with a hot glue gun. Not only is it wonderfully colourful, it also plays their favourite music and tickles them awake with a soft feather. «It's so cool here, I don't even want to go back to school,» says Ellen.
The process that the children go through here is anything but simple. In addition to problem solving, the children at Edulab learn a lot about communication and decision-making processes. A lot of space is given to the topic of teamwork. The children decide for themselves how they want to talk to each other, what rules they set and how each team member contributes their own skills. Sometimes the sparks fly.
Teacher Daniel Stoll smiles as he walks from table to table, where the children in his class are building, gluing and discussing concepts. «There's often not enough time for this kind of thinking in everyday school life. And it's also difficult in terms of space. You can't just go into the workroom to try something out. It's usually occupied.»
It was also the lack of suitable spaces for creative work that gave the founder of Creative Kids the idea for the Edulab. Monika Schatte is originally an architect. She has seen how open workspaces in the business world contribute to the creativity of employees. And has transferred this to the learning environment.
We can react much faster and more flexibly to new changes than schools.
Monika Schatte, founder of Creative Kids
To this end, the non-profit organisation Creative Kids has rented rooms in Basel and developed them in such a way that children and young people are encouraged to come up with innovative solutions and can implement them directly. There are corners to work in, walls that can be written on, iPads, Lego and a studio for film shoots.
And in just a few simple steps, everything can be rearranged to create space for learning niches, final presentations and free play. In the morning, Edulab invites school classes. In the afternoon, the coaches are on hand to help young people who want to realise their own project ideas.
Although Creative Kids is still something of an insider tip among teachers, the innovation workshop for children is fully booked months in advance. The first groups started in Basel in August 2020, and there has been an additional Edulab in Thun since last summer. And the many school classes travelling from other cantons show that there is even more demand.
No wonder: many schools can only dream of such a learning environment. «We can react much more quickly and flexibly to new changes than schools. There are simply many more needs in the school environment,» says Schatte.
In fact, it is difficult to imagine how so much freedom could be integrated into everyday school life. To do this, you first have to take a step back and ask yourself: what constitutes creativity in the first place?
What constitutes creativity?
Creativity is what distinguishes humans from animals. At least that's what brain researcher David Eagleman and composer Anthony Brandt write in their book «Creativity: How our thinking constantly recreates the world».
When we are creative, we use three techniques: We bend existing things, we break them or we combine things differently.
It says: "Our large prefrontal cortex gives us an ability that other creatures lack: we can play through several options and scenarios in our heads. And our creative abilities are fairly distributed: Creativity tests have shown that neither a family's cultural background nor its economic means shape a child's creative abilities. So if creative thinking is encouraged, we can all become geniuses!
And it is precisely these geniuses with new ideas that the world needs to solve the major challenges we are currently facing - from digitalisation to the climate crisis. At the same time, machines are doing all the work for us that is done in the same old way. So if you want to be in demand on the labour market of the future, you need to be able to think creatively."
What does this mean for the curriculum? Should we stop teaching knowledge and just let children tinker and draw? Even though fourth-grader Ellen from Basel would probably like this, Eagleman and Brandt reject such a radical step. After all, ideas never emerge from a vacuum.
Knowledge and creativity belong together. We always draw on our knowledge and experience when we create something new, according to the authors. One clear example of this is graphic designer Lonni Sue Johnson, a successful artist who designed the front pages of the New Yorker, among other things - until she lost her memory due to an infection in 2007. From that moment on, she could no longer draw. She no longer had the templates that she could have altered.
Creative children
How do you encourage children to create freely at home? The book «Kreative Kinder. With 55 ideas for free design» shows you how - with lots of practical tips and really cool craft ideas.
For example, tablet blisters are turned into wiggly eyes and a shoe box is turned into a mirror box in which you can draw mirror-inverted. The authors also explain how to exhibit children's work in such a way that children feel respected and that you can still sort things out again and again. The colourful book is rounded off with tips on how parents can motivate their children to be creative again and again and how they can talk about works of art without judging them.
When we are creative, we draw on what we know and change it. Eagleman and Brandt say that we basically use three techniques to do this: We bend or change what already exists, we break it up and create something new by leaving it out, or we combine things that previously did not belong together.
Salvador Dalí's famous melting watches are an example of bending. Without our ability to leave things out, smartphones without buttons would never have been created. And the street art of the anonymous artist Banksy irritates us and makes us think because he brings together things that don't belong together. One of his well-known pictures, for example, shows a masked man who is not throwing a hand grenade, but lunging to hurl a bunch of flowers. Bend, break, connect. That's all it takes to reshape the world.
Reviews are the number 1 killer of creativity
But do we allow children today to approach the world in this way? Constant judgement is an obstacle to creativity. «As adults, we think we know the right solutions for our children. Stifling a comment like «wouldn't you rather do it this way» is sometimes really exhausting,» says teacher Daniel Stoll from his own experience. Creative Kids founder Monika Schatte also says: «It's so important that we support the children in finding their own solutions and motivate them along the way.»
If children repeatedly experience that «different» is judged as «wrong», the risk of being creative is simply too great for them. In an experiment, psychologist Carol Dweck showed that children who are praised for their efforts are much more willing to take on a difficult new task than those who are praised for their results. This is logical: there is more at stake for the results group. After all, they could be wrong next time.
Using creativity is exhausting. Following a predetermined path is so much easier than finding your own way.
In school disciplines such as maths and physics, where there is only one correct result, Eagleman and Brandt therefore also suggest encouraging children to look for different solutions. Finding multiple options is an important part of the creative process.
The artistic subjects such as art or music are of course a great training ground for finding many options, because many «right» solutions can exist side by side. But here too, creativity requires knowledge and experience.
Eagleman and Brandt recommend that children first familiarise themselves with the techniques of the masters and try them out. They can then be encouraged to create something of their own. By asking the question «What would Picasso's next painting have been?», children can then practise bending, breaking and joining. «An artistic education makes better engineers,» summarise the brain researcher and the composer.
But isn't something lost to society when creativity is instrumentalised in this way? When it becomes a resource for the economy? What about creativity as a means of self-expression in art and music? Or creativity just for fun?
How to stay motivated to be creative
The coaches at Creative Kids come from a wide variety of professional backgrounds. Dominik Mendelin is originally an art teacher and works in an independent art space when he is not coaching children at Edulab in Basel. He says: «In fact, it's only a problem if you believe that creativity is limited. But the resource of creativity is infinite.»
Creativity may not be limited. But utilising it is also really exhausting. Following a predetermined path is so much easier than finding your own way. It's easier to jump at the first idea than to find and try out several options. You can almost see the heads smoking at Edulab. This is another reason why fixed break times and movement units are part of the creative process.
Creative Kids and the Edulab
In the afternoon, the innovation workshops open their doors to young people who want to work on their own projects. Further Edulabs are to be set up with the support of the Migros Pioneer Fund.
www.creative-kids.org
Creative work also requires strong motivation. It is more fun for children to find solutions to problems that they consider important. It is even better if the adults are also still in the dark about a problem. Because then there is no danger of getting it «wrong», according to the coaches.
An audience or a competition can also be motivating. Eagleman and Brandt write that it makes perfect sense for children's artwork to be displayed in the school corridor, for children to take part in inventor competitions or for plays to be performed in the village and not just in the school hall.
Allowing a variety of solutions
The week ends with a presentation for the students at Edulab. The teams present their prototypes to each other and marvel at how different their solutions to the same problem are.
Allowing this variety of solutions and trusting that every child will find their own way is exactly what Creative Kids founder Schatte advises parents to do: «We encourage creativity, for example, by letting children take on tasks at home in their own way and not making any demands on them. These can be small everyday problems such as menu plans, weekend excursions or simply a dinner with the corresponding shopping list.»
