Craft and creativity

The either/or conundrum pops up again and again over the decades. Across science, math, English, and social studies, classroom teachers weigh in on whether they are content-driven or skills-driven in teaching. The dichotomy afflicts all academic subjects and it is, of course, a false one but one that generates far more emotional heat than light, nonetheless. Larry Cuban, Content vs. Skills in High Schools: 21st Century Arguments Echo 19th Century Conflicts

As I was writing Teaching Outside the Lines, I too struggled with the relationship of creativity (a soft skill) with the need for content knowlege and hard skills like mathematical operations, grammar, and such. Ultimately, I concluded:

There are over 100 definitions of creativity as it relates to education in the research literature. (Trefflinger, 2002)

While I can't claim to have read them all, those definitions that I have examined nearly always have two components in common. First, that creativity has an element of the new, the innovative, the original - something not yet done before or done in a new way. This is not surprising.

But the second, too often overlooked, shared element in most definitions is that creativity adds value to the task or objective to which it is applied. Not only must the approach be new, it must make the product, the procedure, the message, or the experience more effective. To me, that second piece gives educators one key to valid creativity assessment.

We must be asking not just if the work is original, but how that originality improves the end result. Creativity guru Sir Ken Robinson simply says creativity is "the process of having original ideas that have value." (Robinson, 2006)

Craftsmanship - the missing element

But perhaps even Sir Ken’s definition is missing an important element.  Creativity that has value depends on what I'll call craftsmanship as well.

What is craftsmanship? In a sense, it is the ability to shape new ideas while still conforming to reality. It's the "why" any new idea has value. It’s what makes the idea feasible. It's why we spend all that time doing all the other skill building and knowledge acquisition in education. And it’s why, when craftsmanship is used a part of the definition of creativity, that new ideas outnumber genuine solutions many times over.

Craftsmanship is what separates cacophony from music or scribbles from art or fantasies from genuine solutions to a problem.

So what is craftsmanship? I'm calling each of these factors a type of "craft": (These are developed more fully in the book.)

1. Content knowledge that makes an original idea workable.
2. Written literacies that enhance the communication.
3. Design skills that add clarity and aesthetic value.
4. Discipline (physical dexterity developed through practice) that allows a performer to be expressive
5. Accepting the illogical nature of human beings in interpersonal relationships when leading or managing a group. 
6. Working within limits: of resources, of time, of morality, and of social acceptability.
7. Working within the constraints of an assignment

We call the natural ability some people have at these crafts "talent" or "giftedness."

If, as Cuban suggests, we as educators have been struggling with the content/skills dilemma for centuries, I doubt this will solve the issue. But it helps clarify my thinking about why we need content - in order to make creativity have value.