How school kills creativity?

I believe that creativity does exist in schools, but it is extremely restricted. Subjects like art, music and drama are the only subjects that I believe  ‘allow’ a limited dose of creativity. Through experience, a pupil being creative, for example, by displaying his/her work differently were not seen as being creative, but were perceived as being disruptive and not conforming to the rules. I believe that children are restricted from being creative, due to creativity sparking curiosity, which can lead to the questioning which society does not want to encourage in schools.      

Sir Ken Robinson is a world-renowned leader in the development of creativity. In 2006, Robinson’s TED talk on ‘How schools kill creativity?’ became the most viewed talk in TED’s history. He was listed as “one of the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation” by Fast Company magazine (Robinson, 2006).

                                        http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity#t-1141052

Ken defines creativity as a ‘process of having original ideas that have value, which comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things’. (Robinson, 2006)

Ken believes that creativity should not be seen as inferior to core subjects like Mathematics and languages but should be treated as equals. 

Ken suggests that the education system has a hierarchy of subjects, which are;

• ·     Core
• ·     Humanities
• ·     Arts

      There is even a hierarchy within the arts;

• ·     Art and music - acceptable in society
• ·     Drama and dance – People believe that there is no use for drama and dance in society. 

Ken believes that ‘Arts’ should be taught with the same respect as core subjects due to  its  creative influence on society.

‘Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same as importance’ (Robinson, 2006).

Ken believes that the basis of creativity is the fearlessness of being wrong. He believes that creativity stems from trial and error, thus if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will not come up with anything original. Although, by the time the children grow up and become adults, they are frightened to be wrong due to companies and colleagues stigmatising mistakes.

Trial and error is what it takes to create new ideas and inventions that have brought us into the technological 21^st century. We are socialized to believe that mistakes are the worst thing you can do, but without mistakes nothing can improve. I agree completely with Ken, when he suggests that education educates people out of their creative capacities.

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”- Pablo Picasso (Robinson, 2006)

Ken believes that the only hope for a better future is to rethink our national curriculum and change the ‘fundamental principles’ in which we are educating our children.

The task of the current society is to see the children as the hope they are, and that it is our duty to help them make something of it.

References 

Sir Ken Robinson (2014) Retrieved 21^st of April 2014 from http://sirkenrobinson.com/?page_id=10