08 March 2012 / by Radmila Gurkova

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson recently challenged the way we educate our children and made a profound case stating that schools undermine rather than nurture.

He feels that ‘‘we are educating people out of their creativity,'' and that children today are ignored and stigmatized.

How can we predict education and the extraordinary capacity that children have? All kids have tremendous talent but we squander them. "If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original." he explains; stating that by the time you become adults you have lost certain capacities you learnt as a child and have become frightened of being wrong.

He feels that we run our companies in a frightened capacity, stigmatizing mistakes - educating people out of their creativity. Therefore is it wrong to be creative at work?

Picasso said "All children are born artists the problem is to remain an artist when we grow up"

The whole purpose seems to be to educate people throughout the world, to become a University Professor - most academic classes are designed to be at the top, whereas dance and music are pushed to the bottom. Why is this?

According to UNESCO within the next 30 years more people worldwide will be graduating through education than the beginning of history, all heading towards a more academic age.

Sir Ken tells us that we are shielding creativity and harbouring individual development. He thinks we should adopt a conception of human ecology and reconstitute our conception through the richness of human capacity - to re-think the fundamental principals in which we educate our children. ...Should we?

We should use the gift of education and create the capacities for the richness they are – and help children form the hope to create a better future.  Our job is to make them achieve this.

DEBATE



  • Should we re-educate our children in a fundamental way?

  • Is education equal amongst all professions?

  • Could we spend the next 30 years educating only the Arts?


KEYWORDS




































































Word Image Definition Example Listen
Taught Past of 'to teach' What were you TAUGHT today in English classes? Listen
Workplace   Any or all places where people are employed A bill to set safety standards for the workplace. Listen
Encourage To give support to someone. I try to encourage my children to do the right thing. Listen
Push To press upon or against (a thing) with force I'm going to push on your stomach. Listen
Nurture   To feed and protect Encourage the development of (a child). She wants to stay at home and nurture her children Listen
Squander To spend or use (money, time, etc.) extravagantly or wastefully I will squander all my money Listen
Undermine To try and make an argument or a believe look week. His authority was undermined by the president Listen
Frightened   Very scared The horror movie frightened him. Listen

20

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