This Spring Expect A Rise of Creative Expression Among Disconnected Youth

From the Desk of Octavia Fugerson, M.Ed, Ph.D

Applied Cognition and Development

March 2020

Spring is near!
The birds are chirping, flowers are coloring the grass, and the sun is shining. Similar to how the plants and animals of nature rise with the increase of heat, this spring let's expect a rise in expressions and behaviors of creativity, among high potential disconnected youth in classrooms, and other institutional settings. Like plants growing and insects hatching, creativity will be bubbling. Some students become excited, inspired, gain desires, and go against the social norms of classroom management. For high potential disconnected youth, creative behavior and creative thinking is not always rewarded in the traditional classroom or in their living environments. Among the students identified as having behavior problems, are many students with great skill in originality (uniqueness of ideas), elaboration (addition to detail), fluency (generation of many ideas), or flexibility (generation of different types of ideas and categories), all elements of exhibiting creative processes. While creativity may manifest disruptively at times, as essential spring is to life, creativity benefits, and will show itself, especially this season.


Let’s give attention to how Spring may bring forth a shift to the feelings and behaviors that may increase creativity by looking to individuals who experience Seasonal Affective Disorder. Applying an anti-deficit perspective, strengths, resources and other themes aligned with wellbeing can be highlighted.

A glance at Seasonal Affective Disorder, from an Anti-Deficit Perspective
Seasonal affective disorder is a type of depression that’s related to changes in season. Winter months, with the colder temperature, icy weather and limited sunshine, may put to sleep elements of creativity, similar to the effect winter has on some animals who hibernate and some trees that lose their leaves. We are as accustomed to the manifestations of Seasonal Affect Disorder in the Winter Time, as we are traits of depression. Tales of exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, losing interest in common activities, feeling worthless, guilt or hopeless, and thoughts of death, paint a picture we are familiar with, as it relates to the dysfunction of S.A.D. During such time, traits of creativity are less likely to be expressed when one lack’s motivation, are experiencing sadness, or uncontrollable episodes of doubt. With the shift from winter, I’d like to make us more familiar, with traits of creativity in a more active state, such as presented in a warmer seasons.

As the increase sunlight affects melatonin levels, sleep patterns and moods will change and creative behaviors are likely to present themselves. The increase in serotonin levels in the brain reduces symptoms of depression. Breaking from the winter time themes of low energy and tiredness, oversleeping, cravings of foods high carbohydrates and weight gain, spring rejuvenates creativity with a boost of energy, inspiration and new life.

It is an instinctual and innate behavior to take the time to use our hands, minds, and energy in doing something we enjoy. The opportunity to take risks, try new things, and strip away inhibitions in the name of creating and enjoying the influence of spring, provides a means for developing resourceful ways to solve problems. Being able to create, helps one to value their work, trust their instinct and gain confidence. The expression of creativity can be fun, reduce stress level and improve one’s quality of living. Creativity starts with one accessing their own thoughts, feelings and beliefs, then taking the time and energy to develop their own ideas. Creativity facilitates individuals’ understanding of self, trust and respect of self, and better expression of self. The demonstration of creative behaviors and passion exploration, allow our youth to engage and, support the growth of their knowledge and creative skills.

With the coming of spring, some creative themes we should be able to identify among disconnected youth include: 

• Visionalization: purpose that inspires one to give their best back to the world
• Reaching: moving beyond one’s comfort zone to grow and reach goals
• Pioneering: preserving through challenges to innovate
• Communication: collaborating and connecting with others to build strong communities
• Alchemy: harnessing life experiences into optimism
• Actualization: impacting the world as a leader who serves

Demonstration of these skills can be found, as we look to the activities that youth partake in during their spring and summer. Shadowing professionals aligned with personal aspirations, participating in social activities with peers, volunteering through community service and community problem solving present some examples.


Too Much Shade Dims Good Light
Not all creative strengths are viewed the same. However, this spring, youth who have experienced foster care, juvenile incarceration, homelessness or displacement could benefit from expressing their creative strengths without punishment.

Youth who are of the general population, and/or resourced through assets of their parents are more likely to have their creative strengths identified and developed through gifted education services. Disconnected youth, youth who do not benefit from the assets of their biological patterns, deserve to have their creative strengths identified as valuable as well, and those strengths should be developed, opposed to the experience of having their weaknesses highlighted and prioritized, as typical for youth involved with the child welfare and juvenile justice system setting. The current educational setting that gifted and high potential disconnected youth face is not similar to the gifted education services readily accessible to the students of the general population. Behaviors, traits and aptitudes of creative, gifted and high potential disconnected youth are often viewed as behavioral problems. More often, disconnected youth are placed in special education and remediation programs, where deficits are targeted. Conversation of deficiencies in performance can be similar to the rumination of thought of painful experiences that limits creatives, who are facing depression. I suggest we shift from the deficit perspective into an anti-deficit perspective to identify and develop the creative strengths of disconnected youth. That shifts offer perspective that allows creative strengths to be seen not as behavior problems, but as a function of one’s strengths, values, interests, or gifts.

Everybody Loves the Sunshine
With a little more sun, you can expect a little more light and some revelations, warming up, and exploration to occur. Productivity may rise when the opportunity presents itself and one is engaged in activities of their interests or strengths. An increase in creative understanding may show itself in individuals, as they began to present some Creative Thinking Tools this Spring:

Seeing the light, or

• Observing, paying attention to what is felt, seen, heard, smelled, touched or taste when the body
• Recognizing patterns: discovery of nature’s law

Feeling the warmth, or

• Body think: thinking that occurs through sensations and awareness of muscles and skins
• Imagining: ability to recall or imagine feelings and sensations

Letting the light lead the way, or

• Empathizing: losing self in things being studied
• Synthesizing: combining many kinds of experiences - an integration of knowledge

Those who embrace the sunshine feel the warmth. Teachers who show a humanistic philosophical orientation, have developed their own creative competencies and are more effective in enhancing student’s creative abilities, than teachers who follow more traditional instructional approaches. Open the classroom and allow sunshine to flow in, by creating a classroom environment that supports creativity by providing psychological safety.


The Sun Shines Down on Them too
With the initiation of this Spring, I am reminded of neuroplasticity, promise of the adolescent mind and the high potential, or developmental capital of the youth. Developmental capital is a composited of strengths, competencies, values, supports and resources. It is the essential skills used to develop one's best self, and may include creative abilities. Creativity promotes problem-solving, is a prerequisite for innovation, reduces stress & anxiety, leads to feelings of accomplishment & pride, and links one to others. Disconnected youth should not be punished for manifestations of positive creativity and these students deserve psychologically safe educational settings. To provide psychological safety, educators, child welfare professionals, and those engaging in authentic youth engagement should include: empathetic understanding, the creation and enactment of a creative group atmosphere, prevention and avoidance of negative sanctions with a celebration of new ideas or thoughts, avoidance of group pressure and competition, and rewarding creative thinking and output.

Recommendation for How We Acknowledge Youth’s Dispositions in Educational Settings this Spring
This Spring I ask that you engage students with principles of Zach Norris’s Culture of Care to shift out a framework of fear. In this exercise, think of the care you could offer as a sunflower in your garden. Sunshine, water and air are essential to the growth of your flower.

• Imagine the exposure to sunshine you provide being aligned with investing resources for youth to be engaged in meaningful pursuits, becoming more educated and healthier. You can cause a shift from deprivation to resources.
• Imagine the water you provide being aligned with youth attaining engagement with healthy people, such as those who are encouraging, relatable, respectable and resourced. Trust occurs through engaging and resolving conflicts. You can cause a shift from suspicion to relationships.
• Imagine the air provided to your sunflower being aligned with youth having the freedom to move, access provided via social connection, and a sense of possibility. The feeling of knowing where one stands and having the ability to shape one’s circumstances increase one’s agency and aid’s one healing. You can cause a shift from isolation to participation for a youth.

When engaging a population that has experienced the conditions disconnected youth face, an opportunity to be seen in a positive light and treated with care can lead to opportunities to access resources, be educated and become healthier. With these principles, your sunflower of care will grow and so will the creative strengths of the disconnected youth you serve.

Concluding Mantra

With the sunshine of the support of programs that hold their interests, may the disconnected youth we serve, be watered with access to resources, and ascend as swiftly as the wind of spring into the air of their optimal potential and into a better state of well-being.

Happy Spring Equinox! 

Dr. Octavia Fugerson is an educational psychologist with a focus on the cognitive processes and social/emotional support of gifted and creative disconnected youth. She received her Masters of Education in Gifted and Creative Education and her Doctorate of Philosophy in Applied Cognition and Development at the University of Georgia. She is currently seeking opportunities to speak, collaborate and consult. She can be contacted at OFDevelopmentalServices@gmail.com.




References

Esquivel, G (1995). Teacher Behaviors that Foster Creativity. Educational Psychology Review 7 (2) p. 185 -202

Midwest Torrance Center for Creativity (2016). Torrance Journal for Applied Creativity Volume 1 https://www.centerforgifted.org/TorranceJournal_V1.pdf

Norris, Z. (2020). We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just and Inclusive Communities. Boston, Massachusetts.

Robinson, K ( 2015). Creative schools: the grassroots revolution that’s transforming education. New York: Viking.

Seasonal Affective Disorder - MayoClinic.org; and https://www.icarehn.com/blog/facts-about-seasonal-affective-disorder-sad/