Is Creativity Valued in Higher Ed?
According to Patrick Sullivan, co-editor of “What is College-level Writing?” (2006) and English professor at Manchester Community College (CT), the answer is “Not so much.”聽 In his recent article 聽 Sullivan outlines recent interest in education circles in promoting creativity as a habit of mind, and juxtaposes this interest with the move toward narrow “Common Core” standardized testing in the US.聽 He also explores what he claims is an long-standing disinclination in English departments to devote time to the teaching and practice of creative discourses at the expense of academic writing.聽 Sullivan does not issue a call for more poetry writing workshops – although he likely wouldn’t be against that (see Dr. Sullivan below adding a little poetic levity to Manchester CC’s 2015 graduation ceremony). 聽
What he does argue for is teaching “rhetorical dexterity,” which he sees as a form of creativity that can easily be developed in the writing classroom – if teachers are willing to expand the repertoire of genres that students are learning and practicing.聽 If teachers choose to think more creatively about assignment design, they can still challenge students to think critically – but at the same time, move students toward more complex decisions about ideas, media and audiences.
