Is creativity the process or the product?

 I think that it is very true that “Children can be creative with just about anything” (Jill
Englebright Fox & Schirrmacher, 2015, pp. 4) and that “young children play for the sake of
playing” (pp. 6). “A focus on product rather than process argues the importance of making a
final product and emphasizes that processing is secondary to that final project” (pp. 6). But
when children are playing for the sake of playing, they have no end goal in mind. They can be in
an imaginary zoo one minute and the next their giraffe has flown them off to space! “Processing
honors the unexpected and provides opportunities for problem solving … the reward and
pleasure are in the doing … or engaging … it is not necessary to make something that is
recognizable or rewarded by compliments … processing does not need to cumulate in a finished
product to validate it’s importance” (pp. 6). Therefore, it is my firm belief that “the creative
process begins during exploration and play with tools and materials” (pp. 7) and if there is a final
product then is just a form of documentation to highlight how the creativity process played out.
References

Jill Englebright Fox, & Schirrmacher, R. (2015). Art & creative development for young children.

Cengage Learning.

Peer response to Katherine Strickland

Katherine, you wrote, “I believe creativity is the process and the product” … “it’s about
seeing things in new and different ways and making something unique which is important for the
creator as well for the viewer”. This made me think back to the text we read from inside the
book, Art & creative development for young children. “Creativity – the ability to see things in
new ways, boundary breaking and going beyond the information given, thinking
unconventionally, making something unique, combining unrelated things into something new”
(Jill Englebright Fox & Schirrmacher, 2015, pp. 5). This means that there does not always have
to be a product as a result, sometimes just a visible outcome of the ongoing process is enough to
see the creativity being explored.
We read how “[c]reative expression begins early in life. Babies manipulate toys, explore
space, discover their body parts, test hunches about their world, and even solve problems” (Jill
Englebright Fox & Schirrmacher, 2015, pp. 5). This idea makes me picture babies making
spitting or babbling noises, manipulating their mouth muscles and moving their tongues to learn
how sounds can be altered and demonstrates to us how “[t]he reward and pleasure are in the
doing … or engaging … It is not necessary to make something that is recognizable or rewarded
by compliments (although we always to compliment this behavior!) … processing does not need
to cumulate in a finished product to validate its importance” (Jill Englebright Fox &
Schirrmacher, 2015, pp. 6).
 References

Jill Englebright Fox, & Schirrmacher, R. (2015). Art & creative development for young children.

Cengage Learning.