Rise in IQ but Decline in Creativity – Causal Relationships or Curable Renaissance?

I recently read a Newsweek article entitled, “The Creativity Crisis” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman which stated the average IQ has increased by 10 points each generation, but according to the Torrence Assessment of Creativity, creativity has declined (2010). The Torrence assessment asks one to create new things with everyday items. According to Bronson and Merryman, researchers have blamed tv and video games for the lack of piquant, creative fervor of today’s digital learners which was found in previous generations. Are tvs and video games causing a decline in the production of creative juices?


Bronson and Merryman (2010) also elucidate schools devote less time to creative inquiry, resulting in a cataclysmic dissolution of creativity. Should schools be focusing on teaching the curriculum? Is there enough time in the world of No Child Left Behind and standards based assessments to develop creativity? Either you are creative or you’re not, right? Is there a causal relationship between the schools of today and a decline in the production of creative juices? In the words of Sir Ken Robinson, “Are schools killing creativity?”

Curriculum and Creativity can be taught through instructional strategies which focus on higher level critical thinking skills such as inquiry, analysis, and synthesis, etc. Alfie Kohn reminds us teacher as facilitator means to make easy; teacher as creator means to develop. If educators focus on being creators, rather than facilitators, students naturally engage in creative thought processes which are essential to brain development. Developing creative learners involves engaging the learner in finding, finding, finding, finding…facts, ideas, solutions, plans (Bronson & Merryman, 2010).

Educators must rejuvenate the creative minds of learners. Integrating research based instructional strategies such as cooperative learning, comparing/contrasting, classifying, creating metaphors/analogies, drawing, creating mental images, using graphic organizers, generating hypotheses and testing them, using questioning techniques, as well as using technology to engage the learner in these instructional strategies is sure to be a curable renaissance for the creative clutch of digital learners.

Bronson, P. and Merryman, A. (2010). The creativity crisis. Newsweek, July 19, p.44-50.