Which is correct: Children's creativity is OR gets developed properly ...?

Question

In a conversation, which was about children's development in a nursery school, I came across this sentence.

Children's creativity gets developed properly because they play with materials found in nature e.g. sticks or leaves.

To my mind "gets developed" does not sound quite right and I think developed collocates with the verb "to be". So it should be

...is developed properly.

What are your thoughts about that?

I would prefer "is" in this context, but it's not worth getting your shorts in a twist about. — Hot Licks, Apr 04 '20 at 14:29
"Children's creativity develops properly ..." There's no reason to use a passive unless somebody or something else is developing their creativity. — Peter Shor, Apr 04 '20 at 14:32
@Peter The passives hint strongly at agency; this is a psycholinguistic debate (I think I'd alternate usages). — Edwin Ashworth, May 04 '20 at 15:27
Does this answer your question? Passive with "to get" The get-passive is considered less suitable for formal registers, especially in the UK (though 'getting married' is an exception). — Edwin Ashworth, Sep 01 '20 at 16:12
Peter Shor is right...there is no need for any form of passive here. — Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_, Dec 30 '20 at 16:12
The nursery school is hawking their services. "Gets developed" means gets developed by the school. The wording is no accident. — Yosef Baskin, Jan 12 '21 at 21:27
@YosefBaskin I am sure that's what they were trying to convey, but it also implies that the children are some kind of product that is developed (like software). Maybe it's ok in the UK, but that would raise eyebrows in the states. — FeliniusRex - gone, Jan 29 '21 at 20:15

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 04 '20 at 14:06

1

'Gets developed' is informal; 'is developed' is to be preferred in writing aiming for a higher level of formality than e.g. chatty or casual. In general, this applies to any choice between 'get', and 'to be', 'become', etc, where both seem possible.

answered Apr 04 '20 at 14:06

Michael Harvey

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Which is correct: Children's creativity is OR gets developed properly ...?

1 Answers1