Into the Woods: Creativity in Gifted Children

In fairy tales, many protagonists learn by journeying through the Woods, whereas most children in the modern world learn by going through the school system. In this chapter, we use the fairy talk characters from the musical, Into the Woods, as a metaphor for the development of creatively gifted students in our school system (i.e., the Woods). We first trace key research and beliefs about the giftedness and creativity in the West, then contrast this with how these concepts are considered in the East (specifically discussing South Korea). We then review how schools systems treat various creatively gifted students and problems that commonly arise. Last, we discuss future directions for how school systems can nurture creativity in all students. Discussed solutions include: the RTI model for gifted programs, teaching creative metacognition, and developing effective and efficient creativity assessments.