Programs that nurture creativity (vs acceleration)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the nature of creativity is that adults cannot “nurture” it by enrolling kids in a “program”

Ah but that's where you err, in not realizing that creative people need to 1) be around other creative people and 2) taught in a way that brings out their creativity. If placed in a creative environment, their thinking will absolutely be stimulated. You also err by assuming that all "programs" are equal without realizing that some programs are orders of magnitude better than others for certain students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the nature of creativity is that adults cannot “nurture” it by enrolling kids in a “program”

That’s like saying don’t put your kids in art or music classes, just let them freeform all the time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the nature of creativity is that adults cannot “nurture” it by enrolling kids in a “program”

That’s like saying don’t put your kids in art or music classes, just let them freeform all the time

Creativity is not that "natural"--most of the time if kids just do free play or free draw they just copy what they have seen or have a schema for what to do. Don't get me wrong--free play is really important for finding your interests, for well-being, social problem-solving etc. But you can support creativity by setting up conditions that encourage it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am aware of all the programs out there that accelerate kids in math/writing (AoPS, Kumon, Curie, CTY—the list is long). Are there any well regarded programs that nurture creativity in children? I’m not interested in acceleration. Thanks!

FWIW, AoPS does not really accelerate kids. The focus is extra depth and really stretching the kid's understanding of the material. The standard AoPS "track" has kids doing Algebra in 7th or later.

I was going to add this--AoPS is focused on depth and I find it demands a lot of creativity.

What is a good age to begin AoPS?

Whenever they're ready to take this course: https://artofproblemsolving.com/school/course/bridge-to-pa

[Anonymous]

Kumon is not acceleration, lol