Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Atypical Creativity

When DS5 was younger, I remember thinking he wasn't creative because he didn't enjoy dramatic play, like to paint/draw often, or do much dancing. He's always been a very logical kid & is deeply interested in numbers. One day he was trying to solve a math problem & did so in a pretty unusual, abstract way. It was at that point I realized that he is creative, just not in the traditional sense. For example, I remember when he was 4 and had really gotten into multiplication. He had asked me to give him some multiplication problems so I said, "What's 9x6?" He responded, "Hmmm... 81, 72, 63. It's 63." Obviously no one had taught him to problem solve this way, it was just a creative way of starting with a math fact he knew. Lately he's been talking about how God created numbers & how he thinks of them spiraling up in the sky in ever larger circles, coming back around on each other. Or he says he likes to think about numbers reaching all the way across the sky and around the Earth... at least that's what I'm gathering. I'm not really sure that I'm following what he's talking about. Communication isn't his strong suit.

Last week we had a parent teacher conference, and his teacher lamented that DS isn't very creative with the Montessori materials available to him. She hasn't seen him use them in some of the different and creative ways she has observed other gifted kids doing in the past. (To be clear, DS has not been tested but he was a self-taught reader at 2, taught himself how to read an analog clock at 3, and is currently fascinated with square roots. And we don't hothouse.) I'd like to share with DS's teacher my thoughts about his different brand of creativity, but I'm not sure how to explain it.

Am I wrong in labeling his mathematical mind as "creative"? Does anyone have a book or article that I could read and possibly share with his teacher?

Thanks so much!

I think you can definitely be creative in science and other pursuits without being creative artistically.

I found your conference withe the teacher fascinating. In my experience, the Montessori teachers don't like it when children use the material creatively. For example, pretend the pink tower was where Rapunzel was locked inside or pretend a block is a tiny wooden sword. The materials are supposed to be used exactly the way they were told to use. This is a very unusual complaint from a Montessori teacher. Is this a Montessori school or just a school with Montessori materials?

I don't think the Rapunzel thing would fly. It's a Montessori school that takes Maria's philosophy fairly seriously. She was talking about different ways to set up the pink tower and the brown blocks & ways of exploring some of the sensorial materials. It's funny though, because in the past she's commented on how he does works differently than other kids (e.g., completing the 100 board randomly or in an interesting pattern rather than sequentially, laying out the red and blue rods in an unusual way). It's been a while sense she's mentioned this kind of thing though... maybe a year? I get the feeling that she's looking for something rather specific, and he's just not that kind of a kid. He's very cerebral.

Well, your response is still fascinating to me. My son was putting together the map of Australia in the one month we stayed in a well-regarded Montessori that was a spectacularly bad fit for us, the teacher complained that he did not look at the map, and do it from the top row and left to right. We were told that he could not proceed academically until he managed to roll and unroll the little mat exactly the way they wanted it. I cannot imagine our teacher will like anyone doing the 100 board randomly, let along lamenting the fact that the material was not used more creatively.

I think your son is following the Montessori philosophy more closely than the teacher whether he knows or not. I would not worry about setting her straight. I am sure his creativity will show when he is faced with a more challenging problem.

We had DS in a Montessori school for less than 2 weeks before it was an obviously wrong, wrong, wrong fit. For DS - they offered the antithesis of creativity because all materials were to be used "this way ONLY."

Toxic words for DS, and really nothing more than a challenge. To be fair to DS - in our house we often play the "how many ways can you use a brick (or other mundane thing)" game. All sorts of things get used in unintended way. Witness the silver cheese knife and combination lock being used as kitchen radio antenna; old play yard fencing directionally propped to rebound basketballs; hotwheel track made of traffic cones, tomato cages, toy trucks, planks of wood and styrofoam packaging blocks; and the myriad things (including my glasses) held together with twist ties, rubber bands, twine or the blessed duct tape.

I think of Montessori as encouraging "bridled creativity." It puts me in mind of the Season 1 Simpsons episode where Lisa's band director scolded her for an "outburst of unbridled creativity." Here is a link to a thought-provoking review of that episode. http://www.theandrewblog.net/2016/01/20/simpsons-moaning-lisa/ (FYI - I don't know who the blog author is. I just like the way he writes.) It's a lovely episode, highly relevant to the struggles our kids go through with respect to creativity and thinking differently.

Short answer - that teacher is practicing bridled creativity. Ignore.