The 3-year-old superhero test: how schools can keep creativity alive
- KEY academy
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Children are born curious and creative, our role as educators is to keep that spark alive.
“Creative constraints are the factors that stand between an idea and its realization. They may seem like obstacles, but in truth, they often drive innovation. ”
-Temitope Orogbemi, Lead Co-learner, Roots learning group (ages 5 - 7 years).
Introduction
One ordinary day, a three-year-old looked up at me and asked, “Ms Temitope, if you were a superhero, what powers would you have?”
At that moment, I wasn’t exactly in a superhero mood. I was focused on the day ahead, ticking tasks off my list. So I gave the easy answer: “I don’t know” Then, almost without thinking, I flipped the question back to him: “What about you? What powers would you have?”
He didn’t pause. “I’d like to be very strong so I can carry people”, he said. Then, with the kind of clarity adults often lose, he explained: to help, to lift, to protect.
From one small question bloomed a conversation about kindness, strength, and possibility. And in that moment, I was reminded of something I often see in my work at KEY academy: children are naturally wired for creativity. Their curiosity is boundless. They ask “why?” over and over, stretching the edges of what they know.
But here’s the test: what happens next depends on us, the adults in the room. Do we brush their questions aside, or do we lean in and encourage them? That choice shapes whether their creativity expands or quietly fades.
What do we mean by creative thinking? That superhero question reminded me that children already carry the seeds of creativity within them. Creative thinking, or “thinking outside the box”, is the ability to challenge what exists and imagine new possibilities. Every invention and breakthrough we celebrate today began with someone who dared to think differently - just like a child who dreams of having the power to lift others.
Creative thinking shows up in curiosity, open-mindedness, risk-taking, and the willingness to experiment. It is also about balance. Divergent thinking helps students generate bold ideas and explore endless possibilities, while convergent thinking guides them to refine those ideas into practical, workable solutions. When both are encouraged, children grow into dreamers who imagine with courage and problem-solvers who act with purpose.
Children are natural carriers of creativity. They ask the kinds of unusual questions that make us pause and rethink our own assumptions. They come up with unexpected solutions - sometimes sounding silly at first, but often carrying surprising insight. They challenge norms and resist accepting things “just because”.
Even in the face of uncertainty, many children lean in with curiosity instead of stepping back. Some are bold risk-takers, experimenting, failing, and trying again. Others may be more cautious, but their creativity is no less present; it simply needs the right guidance to show that safe, intentional risks can spark new discoveries.
Why does this matter for education? In the late 1960s, a widely cited study by George Land’s famous NASA study revealed something striking: 98% of children aged three to five scored at the genius level for creativity. By age 15, that number had dropped to 12%, and in adulthood, just 2%. Land concluded that restrictive schooling systems often teach children out of their natural creativity.
So why should educators care about creative thinking? Because the future belongs to those who can solve problems in ways we have not even imagined yet. Creativity fuels innovation. It builds resilience, adaptability, and critical thinking - the very skills every child needs to thrive in the 21st century. Albert Einstein expressed it well: “The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size.” Once children taste new knowledge, their minds expand, and there is no shrinking back.
At KEY academy, we nurture this creativity through project-based learning. Our classrooms are built around hands-on, experiential projects where students ask questions, test ideas, and think inventively about solutions. They are not passive students, they are experimenters. When something doesn’t work, that “failure” becomes fuel for growth. They learn what to try differently next time, and that builds stronger problem-solvers.
Exposure matters too. Just as travel reshapes how we see the world, creative, experiential learning reshapes how children think, interact, and make decisions. A child who learns to explore possibilities today will be better equipped to navigate a complex, uncertain tomorrow.
Creative constraints: barriers that build innovation
Creative constraints are the factors that stand between an idea and its realization. They may seem like obstacles, but in truth, they often drive innovation. At KEY academy, this is part of our story. We are not a conventional school. When we began, our project-based methods were unfamiliar to many. Our founder faced some big questions:
Which families would embrace this unconventional approach?
Where should the school be located to ensure access?
How would educators, especially in our context, adapt to becoming project-based educators?
These were tough challenges. Yet, step by step, each one was addressed, and the school grew. What looked like barriers became the very things that shaped our identity and fueled our creativity.
This is the lesson children must carry too: limitations are not reasons to stop - they are invitations to innovate. When they learn to work within constraints, they become more resourceful, resilient, and imaginative.
What are our roles as educators? So where do we, as educators, come in? Our role is not to fill children’s minds with answers, but to keep their questions alive. It is to:
Encourage curiosity instead of silencing it.
Value creativity as much as correctness.
Create safe learning spaces for trial, error, and exploration.
Model openness, resilience, and risk-taking ourselves.
When we do this, we give children permission to imagine differently, to fail safely, and to discover boldly.
Final thoughts Every student has creative potential. Our job is to help them unlock it. The best ideas are often the ones that seem outrageous at first. Sir Ken Robinson, in his book Out of Our Minds, put it beautifully: “We will not succeed in navigating the complex environment of the future by peering relentlessly into a rear-view mirror. To stay on this course, we should be out of our minds in a more literal sense.”
We cannot hold on to old ways of thinking and expect new futures. If we want children to thrive in the world ahead, we must encourage them to think differently, boldly, and creatively - outside the box. Written by Temitope Orogbemi, Lead Co-learner, Roots learning group (ages 5 - 7 years).
References Robinson, K. (2011). Out of Our Minds: The Power of Being Creative.
Kelley, D. & Kelley, T. (2013). Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All.
Rodriguez, B. The Power of Creative Constraints (TED-Ed).
Rethinking Creativity in Education. (Creativity Research Journal).
Land, G. (2011). The Failure of Success (TEDxTucson)
“NASA's Study on Children: How Traditional Schooling Reduces Creative Spark” (YourStory.com)
The Creativity Crisis - Britfield Institute (Britfield Institute)