Creativity is the Most Essential Value Ever in the Society Today

     Recently, the education system seems to consider creativity significantly in Korea. All schools and institutions pursue ‘creative education’, and parents are eager to let their children become more creative. Creativity is such a ‘popular’ value in the society today. The popularity would be because the society needs the value of creativity. In fact, creativity is one of the values that are needed more than ever in the society today.

     The importance of creativity can be proved by the history of the values the societies consider most significantly. There have been three revolutions that led the societies to the current stage. The first was the ‘agricultural revolution’. Due to the advance of agriculture, people could settle in a land and make a civilization. Land was the most important value of the society. The next revolution was the ‘industrial revolution’. Factories and machines made mass production possible. The society valued capital the most. The last was the ‘information revolution’. The development of transportation and communication made the flow of information easier and faster. Enormous quantity of information flows every day via Internet, and everybody can contact to the information with their computers and phones. In the information society, of course, information is valued the most. To win in the competition, people should not only have approach to the information, but produce more information. The people and firms should suggest original ideas and create novel values and information! To make original ideas, creativity is very essential. Therefore, in a society that has undergone through the information revolution, people should be creative to produce novel values and information.

     Creativity is essential to win in the competitions of the market. Since the society has become bigger and more complex, market has become enormous. Numerous sellers exist in a single market. Therefore, the sellers should be distinctive, compared to the other sellers. To gain attention from the buyers, the products of the sellers should have novel advantages and functions that other products do not have. To create the novel advantages, brilliant ideas accompanied with creativity is required once again. Creativity is the most essential value to gain attention from the consumers and win in the market competition.

     Creativity is also required in design. Nowadays, design of a product is as important as its functions to the consumers. Design has its ability to give the first impression to the consumers, and to make a product seem unique. As there is a saying, “A pretty pie is delicious.” in Korea, consumers tend to buy products which ‘seem good’, closely related to their designs. To create unique and great designs, creativity is essential.  

     In conclusion, in a historic view, in an economic view, and in an artistic view, creativity is essential in the society today. Therefore, the ‘creativity boom’ in the recent education system seems to be a preferable phenomenon. However, the true meaning of creativity should not be transformed when educating the children. The education system should do their best to make children creative in a genuine way.