Professor discusses America’s creativity crisis in Newsweek
Kyung-Hee Kim The assistant professor in William & Mary's School of Education recently discussed America's "creativity crisis" with Newsweek Magazine. Photo by Erin Zagursky
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Kyung-Hee Kim, an assistant professor in William & Mary's School of Education, recently discussed this phenomenon with Newsweek Magazine. The resulting article, "The Creativity Crisis," is included in the July 19 edition of the magazine.
While IQ tests are given to determine a person's intelligence, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking is administered to measure one's creativity or "CQ." Kim, who specializes in educational psychology and creativity, recently analyzed the Torrance scores of 300,000 children and adults and found that American creativity scores have indeed been falling since 1990.
"It's very clear, and the decrease is very significant," Kim said in the Newsweek article.
The decline is most serious among one of America's youngest populations: kindergarteners through sixth graders.
While many culprits may be to blame - from too much TV to current educational practices -- Kim said that one answer to the problem is introducing children to the creative problem-solving program.
"The creative problem-solving program has the highest success in increasing children's creativity," Kim said in the article.
For the complete Newsweek article, visit http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html. To also see Kim's comments on samples Torrance drawing tasks, visit http://www.newsweek.com/photo/2010/07/10/creativity-test.html.
