Computer Science as Creativity

When asked to name some creative activities, most people will immediately say "painting," or "drawing," or "writing." These are common creative pursuits, but creative pursuits are certainly not limited to these or similar endeavors. They are examples of low floor/high ceiling activities, low floor meaning that they can be begun and practiced started at a very young age with that very basic assortment of tools, and high ceiling meaning that there is a lot of space to improve in---many new innovations and techniques can be gained along with even more useful tools.

Other creative pursuits, such as gardening, baking, or mixing drinks need mastery of some prerequisite skills before beginning. We certainly would not expect a five year old to be able to plant a bed of tulips or know how to mix a gin martini.

Mathematics, entrepreneurship, and athletics fall even further from the general idea of what creativity is. Yet all these fields involve creative thinking, original ways of looking at and solving problems. Bending and breaking the “rules” allows for advancement. Sometimes this is very acceptable, as in non-Euclidean geometry, where lines and planes need not be straight, and sometimes completely unacceptable, as witnessed in the commotion over steroid abuse in the Olympics or Major League Baseball.

That being said, why don't most of us consider computer science a creative field? Computers are staples in workplaces, schools, and homes; many of us can’t imagine a day without Google or EBay; and an entire culture has carried over from the Internet to the outside world. The rise of computing and Internet technologies has made it easier to store, retrieve, analyze, and share important information, transforming almost every field of study. And yet we hear so many students---the very ones born into the “Digital Age”---complaining about how difficult or boring computer science is.

This is probably for the same reasons we don't think of math or particle physics as very creative. The learning curve is relatively steeper, it is more difficult to see personal progress being made, and there exist errors and wrong answers.

Nowadays, computer skills courses taught to young students involve mostly typing and learning to navigate the Internet or create slideshow presentations. Exposure to actual computer programming is minimal, appearing as TI-BASIC side projects in algebra and geometry classes. Programming classes for Java or C++ are often not available until the high school or college level.

Furthermore, how does the student know that he is becoming “better” at computer science? Given one programming language, he could be tested over his knowledge of the commands particular to that language. However, this only proves his knowledge of some definitions, and not necessarily the reasoning.

Learning to program can also be frustrating, if at every turn, one has to look out for missing parentheses or semicolons. The “aesthetics” of code---syntax, spaces, and indentations---are helpful, but they certainly aren’t what computer science is “all about.” Misplacing one character can throw off an entire program, and while perhaps the ideas are correct, the work becomes a lot of tedious nit-combing for those tiny mistakes.

The thinking, the logic, and the potential of computer science are what should be emphasized in these introductory classes. The theory and the application are at once alien and familiar, but not enough is being done to meld them in the learning mind. For example, we hear that “math is everywhere,” and whenever we go to the supermarket to buy food, or do our taxes, or cook from a recipe, we are using what we learned in math. We can see that computer science is all around, but using awkward analogies to explain the concepts does nothing to help explain why we need to know a dozen ways to sort objects or manipulate strings.

Yes, computer science is a creative domain. Not only can one apply creativity to it, it can also be applied to other fields creatively. That is the brilliance of such a field, but the stepping stones must be polished before the adjective “boring” can disappear. In an age where words like “blog,” “Web 2.0” and “search engine” are commonplace, we ought to update our pedagogy to reflect the importance that computer science has affected our lives.