Can CREATIVITY be taught?

When my eldest son was in primary school, I found out to my surprise one day, that the Mathematics teacher said this to the class, "Class, there are three methods to solve the problem as shown in the book, but I want all of you to use ONLY the first method."

I was shocked to learn about this instruction from the teacher when the Ministry of Education even at that point in time, has been talking so much about "teaching" creativity in schools. How to teach creativity assuming it can be taught in the first place, when the teacher is not even creative in her method of teaching? Can creativity be taught? Do we expect every student to play piano, write songs and sing well, and in time to come, become inventors and "creators" of things in their respective fields?

It would have made all the difference if the teacher were to say, "Class, there are three methods to solve this problem. But, I want all of you to try and think of the fourth method if you can." I think this would be more congruent with the overall objective of encouraging creativity or creative thinking in the students. Who knows, there might be a second Einstein or genius in the class!

I would like to think that creativity cannot be taught, but it can be encouraged through a creative method of teaching or instructions. The same applies to brainstorming which is a creative approach to generating ideas and solving problems.