Creativity and Talent Development
Creativity:
Renaissance Preparatory School recognizes the need for creativity in the curriculum, facilitating the capacity for innovation and problem-solving. The Board of Directors selected the Alencar Creativity Model for the school:

Alencar Creativity Model:
Alencar, E.M.L.S. Mastering Creativity For Education In The 21st Century. Paper presented at the 13th Biennial Conference of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, Istanbul, Turkey. August, 1999.

• Creative thinking abilities; Use activities which permit students to exercise their creative potential.
• Personality traits (motivation); Strengthen personality traits, such as self-confidence, curiosity, perseverance, thinking independently, courage to explore new situation[s] and to handle the unknown.
• Reduction of blockages; Help students to overcome emotional blockages, such as fear of making mistakes, the fear of being criticized, inferiority feelings, insecurity.
• Techniques of production of ideas and Knowledge background; Prepare students to utilize techniques [for the] production of ideas.
• Psychological climate; Propitiate a psychological climate in class which reflects strong values of support to creativity.

Talent Development
Serving academically talented students:

• Providing an atmosphere conducive to Engaged Learning and Creativity:

Schools could change. They could let students define problems rather than almost always doing it for the students. They could put more emphasis on ill-structured rather than well-structured problems ... They could provide assignments that encourage students to see things in new ways. They could teach knowledge for use, rather than for exams, and could emphasize flexibility in using knowledge rather than mere recall of that knowledge. They could encourage risk-taking and the other personality attributes associated with creativity, and they could put more emphasis on motivating children intrinsically rather than through grades. Finally, they could reward creativity in all its forms, rather than ignoring or even punishing it.     Robert Sternberg

• Bringing students to a more rigorous meeting of all disciplines through interdisciplinary, integrated, or cooperative units:

"... attention to the integrative theme fosters a level of abstraction in students' thinking that they are otherwise not likely to reach."  Further he explains that using an interdisciplinary approach "[pushes] students' thinking toward a plane of generalization where remarkably fundamental and universal patterns may appear."     D.N. Perkins

• Preparing for further academic pursuits:

"The ... job becomes one of helping the [student] link up with a broader fraternity of professionals beyond the classroom."     Carol Tomlinson

• Offering a serious and arduous movement through a classical liberal arts education:

Serving artistically talented students:

• Exposing all students to each discipline:

"Music is no substitute for dance nor visual art for drama; although linked generically, each form has its characterizing practices and modes of engagement."     David Hornbrook

• Developing talent within the discipline:

"A balanced arts curriculum should allow students to have worthwhile experience of all art forms as well as offering opportunities for specialization."     David Hornbrook

• Transcending the solitary arts experience:

"It is important that students who are identified as artistically gifted and talented be brought together with others who have similar interests and abilities and be offered experiences that broaden and deepen their knowledge about art, sharpen their art skills, and present learning opportunities rarely found in regular classroom settings."     Barbara Clark

• Bringing students to a more rigorous meeting of the other disciplines through integration of the arts into cooperative units in other disciplines

"Student Engagement and Persistence Improve with an Arts-Based Curriculum: Schools that incorporate music, art, drama, dance, and creative writing into the basic curriculum have found that teaching the arts has a significant effect on the overall success of the curriculum."     Elizabeth Murfee

Imagination and creativity grow because students stretch their abilities beyond the limits of artificially imposed subject areas, and they thereby widen their horizons.