Squishing Creativity

Last night was my second night working with a new group of young people from Nationalist and Loyalist areas of North Belfast. Between now and June, my colleague Tom Magill and I will be helping them make a film about their experiences. We are working with a group who have identified lack of self-cofidence, low self-esteem and creativity as major hurdles to overcome. From talking with them, these issues are affecting their school grades. They admit to not answering questions in class, for fear that they will get it wrong, that others will laugh, or that they'll look stupid.They are an incredible group of young people, who I guess are often overlooked, as they are so quiet. This connects to something that I firmly believe in...that we are ALL inherently creative, and have a lot to contribute to society as a whole. Unfortunately our environment squishes this down so that we end up believing that it is not safe to be smart, creative, open, trusting, etc. We become stuck, frozen or defensively dismissive for fear of getting hurt again. I see this happening from quiet a young age, and a lot of my work is about helping people to remove these limiting beliefs that continue to smothering these natural capacities that our society is calling for now. What are your thoughts on this? Can you remember a time that this happened? Or have you an example of how you overcame this? I'd love to hear.