Advantages & Disadvantages

(Art work by blog author's seven-year-old son)

Advantages of Creativity


Visualization is a huge part of creativity.  Drawing by visual observation is an activity that occurs in the right hemisphere of the brain.  This is also where intuitive and creative thinking occur.  By imagining, a person also visualizes.  Being able to draw the visualizations helps to develop the right side of the brain (Bartel, 2008).  Marvin Bartel is an art teacher who uses an illustration by a five-year-old to describe how five-year-old's are confident in their ability to draw, sing, and dance.  As these children grow there comes a time when there is a crisis in confidence.  In his article, Teaching Creativity, Mr. Bartel offers advice as to how teachers can "foster or hinder the creative critical thinking that is so essential as a survival and success skill in today's world."  For more information on this article and Marvin Bartel click here or here.


Disadvantages of Creativity


Ken Reynolds (2010), a graphic designer, refers to time and focus as being two of the main disadvantages of being creative.  Mr. Reynolds states that because of lack of time a creative person will accept some of his or her immediate or first ideas instead of taking time to really think about what he or she is trying to accomplish.  The lack of focus often occurs with creativity as well.  When a creative person comes up with several ideas he or she may start trying to put all these ideas together instead of maintaining his or her focus on one.  By clustering these creative ideas the impact of the idea may be lost (Reynolds, 2010).


In the article, Creativity Killers: discouraging creativity in children (2004), Leslie Wilson, offers ways in which adults discourage creativity in children. For more on this article click here.