- 3 Worth the Read on The Need for Creativity in Education
Leo Boudreau
By Leo Boudreau
It feels like our education system is reaching a tipping point. There are so many areas of contention related to education and a high level of dissatisfaction with the results. The issues stretch from the earliest preschool experiences through the debate as to whether a college education is worth it on a cost/benefit basis. At the tipping point, we might see fundamental changes in the way children are educated, particularly around the skills we think are important to develop.
An area of particular interest to us at Synecticsworld is the role of creativity and innovation in education. This is because a key part of what we do is provide the skills, climate and language to allow people to tap into their innate creative capabilities. The same innate creativity they possessed before they were introduced into the education system and pushed into a pursuit of the “right” answer.
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” Pablo Picasso
The following three articles/videos, I feel are important contributions to dialogue on the role of creativity and innovation in education. Create. Change.
“We are educating people out of their creativity,” Sir Ken Robinson
While businesses are emphasizing the need for creative and innovative thinking in their people, much of our education system is still directed towards getting the right answer and maximizing the scores on standardized tests. There seems to be a fundamental conflict between what we are requiring of people to have successful careers and what we are teaching them in school. Why don’t we get the best out of people? In this TED Talk Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies — far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity — are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says.
Fostering Creativity, By Mary Ann Kohl
It is important that children as they enter the education system continue to be allowed to exercise their natural creativity and innovative thinking skills. This is a natural capability that all children have and it seems that in our normal education process, we strive to get children to stop thinking that way but to think in a more rigid and structured manner. There are exceptions, like the Montessori School for Pre-School, Kindergarten & Elementary which has set goals to ensure children start with the right tools to unlock their true potential. I enjoyed reading this article by Mary Ann Kohl that makes suggestion for a different way to address education for the very young, ways that will allow them to consider to think and make connections in a more open minded way.
Read – Early Childhood News Fostering Creativity By Mary Ann Kohl
Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline
Even at the collegiate level, there has been a recognition that something is missing in our educational system and that the end product is not delivering people fully capable of meeting the challenges they will face in their careers. There have been numerous initiatives that have started to tackle the issue head-on. The following article from the New York Times, discusses some efforts undertaken at the collegiate level to make creativity and innovation core parts of the academic experience.
