I'm curious - and therefore creative?

Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do in the presence of kids is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Is there a relationship between curiosity and creativity? Many writers make one, despite a lack of research supporting the connection*. Even people who don't link curiosity and creativity still view curiosity as a positive disposition - misogynists and fabulists who write about overly nosy cats aside.

When I think about curiosity, I tend to look at what people are actually curious about. Historians, archaeologists, and similar professionals seem to want to know more about the past. Political scientists, educators, and journalists want to investigate the present.

Both these forms of curiosity call for convergent thinking. One gathers lots of information together and then comes to a reasoned conclusion. While there is a form of creativity inherent in forming new conclusions, investigations into the past or present seem less likely to produce original thinking than those learners who are curious about the future - the scientists, the engineers, and the inventors - the "let's just see if this idea floats" type of people. 

Divergent thinking - coming up with a lot of possible solutions and then testing them - is the hallmark of people curious about the future and therefore obviously creative. Creativity is often linked with mindful observation and that observation results not just in imagining possible solutions - but in recognizing problems to be solved as well.

Do educators, as deGrasse suggests in the quite above, "thwart" the curiosity of children? And if so, how? Is it our concentration on convergent, rather than divergent thinking? Is it because research is too rarely tied to personal interests and real-world problems? Through insistence on adherence to academic standards of writing, do we kill kids natural curiosity?

How do we encourage creativity in our students, our peers, and in ourselves?

Curious minds want to know.

 

* See: Did Curiosity Kill the Cat? Relationship Between Trait Curiosity, Creative Self-Efficacy and Creative Personal Identity, Europe's Journal of Psychology. Volume 8, Number 4 (2012)