Creativity in a Box

While I was working in advertising after graduating from university, I took a course on account management at a small hands-on mentoring school. It was an awesome class taught by people in the profession. One quote that we were told that has always stuck with me was:

Creatives can be more creative the smaller the box they are in.

Here "creatives" means the people in the art department. What the instructor was saying was that when you give boundaries to people when giving them a task, it pushes their creativity further.

I often feel this way when planning units (at least right now). I wonder if it would be better for the school to hand teachers a unit plan with the investigation points, central idea, and the standards they want covered already filled in so teachers can focus on activities and lessons.

That's how I feel today.


*Note: This was written from me being at a school where the only control over my unit is the standards I put in them.