We may have been praised for our original ideas, for our poetry or art work, and even encouraged in our efforts. Creativity is nice, but it won't help you get ahead in the world. Long before we have a chance to determine what is right for us, we have buried creativity under practicality. There is a difference between applauding creativity in children, and encouraging its development.
Adults applaud children's flights of imagination, the clever things they say and do.
But these are rarely taken seriously, or considered a possible sign of something more than mere cuteness. Although many of the elements of creativity have been studied, the process is still surrounded by mystery. One problem is that we fail to distinguish between creativity and talent. We recognize talent in many areas, and support it, but talent can exist without creativity. If we look at creativity as a developmental process which takes place over time, just like physical or emotional development, it begins to look very different from talent.