This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creativity
Every generation has something that enables young people to let their creativity run wild. For my generation, that was probably Legos. Someone might argue that Legos were many generations’ outlet for creativity. I admit, though, that growing up in Ireland I had a lot of outside play and exploration, which also unleashed my creative side. A great big world awaits our students’ exploration, too, and not just in Minecraft.
Minecraft has enabled young people from kindergarten to college to start creating. Minecraft has inspired people to re-create everything from spacecrafts to entire cities. Minecraft has inspired people to create stories, poems, paintings, and animations. Creating things in Minecraft inspires creativity in other ways. For example, a very popular project to have students underake is to re-create their school. As this is being done, students are naturally compelled to think about what their ideal school looks like and what changes they would make to their current school.
You could look at an empty Minecraft world as a blank canvas awaiting a player’s unique creativity. The lines between art, design, architecture, and urban planning are becoming thinner in Minecraft. Without knowing it, children are sowing the seeds of their passions in life and of what may be in store for them in their professional careers.