Creative Personality - Help Him Understand His Divergence

A high degree of sensitivity, a capacity to disturbed, and divergent thinking are essentials of the creative personality. Frequently, creative children are puzzled by their own behavior. They desperately need help in understanding themselves, particularly their divergence. The following story written by a fourth grader about a lion that won't roar illustrates the divergent child's search for someone who will understand him:

. . . Charlie had just one great wish. It was to be able to roar. You see when Charlie was born he quickly turned hoarse. As soon as he was nine years old, he went to ask Polly the parrot. But she said, "Go ask Blacky the crow."

So off went poor Charlie to see Blacky. When he got there, he asked, "Blacky, why, oh why can't I roar?"

But Blacky only replied, "Don't you see, Charlie, I'm busy. Go see Jumper the kangaroo. She can help you."

Jumper didn't understand Charlie's problem. But she did give him some advice. Jumper said, "Go ask the wise old owl."

The wise old owl understood everything. He told Charlie, "I hate to say this, but if you really want to know, you're scared of everything."

Charlie thanked him and hurried home. To this day Charlie can't roar, but how happy he is to know why he can't.

There are crucial times in the lives of creative children when being understood is all that is needed to help them cope with the crisis and maintain their creativity.

Let Him Communicate His Ideas

The highly creative child has an unusually strong urge to explore and to create. When he thinks up ideas, or tests them, and modifies them, he has an unusually strong urge to communicate his ideas and the result of his tests. Yet both peers and teachers named some of the most creative children in our studies as ones who "do not speak out their ideas." When we see what happens when they do "speak out their ideas," there is little wonder that they are reluctant to communicate their ideas. Frequently, their ideas are so far ahead of those of their classmates and even their teachers that they have given up hope of communicating.

All school guidance workers need to learn to perform this function more effectively. They must genuinely respect the questions and ideas of children to sustain the highly creative child so that he will continue to think.