Creativity
in the Montessori Classroom
BY WARREN MCPHERSON
Creativity is more essential than ever to a healthy, productive
life. The tools and skills of creative thinking provide educators with
a direct path to the reconstruction of education and to a healthier,
more balanced, and flexible mindset to guide students through the
labyrinth of modern complexity.
Despite the current lip service paid to “integrating the curriculum,”
truly interdisciplinary courses are rare, and transdisciplinary
curricula that span the breadth of human knowledge are
almost nonexistent. I would assert that Maria Montessori’s Cosmic
Curriculum, when authentically practiced (as illustrated in the
books and workshops of Michael Dorer and D’Neil Duffy), meets
this need for integrated and imaginative thinking. We know now
that creativity cannot be achieved by just regurgitating the correct
answer. It involves so much more, such as cognitive dissonance,
uncertainty, incubation, imaging, and other processing.
According to Pablo Picasso, “Every child is an artist. The problem
is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”1 In psychometric
measures of creativity, Paul Torrance found that creativity was, to
1, 2 October 4, (1976), Periodical: Time, Article: Modern Living: Ozmosis in Central Park, Note: The quotation appears as an epigraph at the
beginning of the article.
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