First of all, many nurseries and reception classes still work under the misdunderstanding that creativity is about mass production. I am thinking of those rows of near-identical paintings of flowers, and outlines drawn by adults that are filled with tissue paper scrunched by industrious little fingers.
Then there are the displays made up of children's drawings that have been cut around by an adult and stuck on to a background. I can remember spending almost a week's worth of early evenings putting together just such a display as a class teacher nearly 20 years ago. It was all nicely mounted, spaced and proportioned. Parents and staff admired it, but I do not recall that the children took much interest.
Years later, I heard Professor Tina Bruce wondering how Vincent Van Gogh would have felt if his famous chair had been cut out and used for a display about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It struck me then that a kind of violence is done to children's drawing and paintings if we cut them out and use them for our own ends.
If it is to mean anything, the Creative Development strand of the EYFS has got to be about making choices and thinking creatively. After the children are taken to the woods to see the bluebells, surely they should be given a range of opportunities to respond - to draw, paint, dance, or manipulate digital pictures and video, perhaps?
But that train of thought left me wondering if Creative Development is, therefore, all about processes, and leaving children to make choices and be free. But it cannot be. For example, I (truly) cannot sing in tune. Nor do I dance terribly well. Left with just me, no class or group of children could make much development in those areas. I would be unable to respond, model, take part or help them refine what they were doing.
A 'free' approach to Creative Development is likely to be less damaging to children than inposing an adult agenda. But it will be no more educative. Young children need capable adults who can help them develop their skills and broaden their horizons, and who have the imagination and understanding to give them time, space and freedom for creativity.
