Are schools killing creativity?
In an article on the Guardian online earlier this year, Sir Ken Robinson (former professor of arts education at the University of Warwick, author and general creativity expert) suggested that the rigid prescriptive school structures in place around the world are robbing our children of desirable and necessary creative thinking skills.
Part of his criticism of the traditional school system is that it has too much structure and that subjects are too separated and narrowly defined. During a TED talk in 2006, he suggested that “…creativity comes about from the interaction of the different disciplinary ways of seeing things.” Certainly the Rose review into primary education agrees. It suggested a more broad syllabus:
- understanding English
- communication and languages
- mathematical understanding
- science and technological understanding
- human, social and environmental understanding
- understanding physical education and well-being
- understanding the arts and design
Another part of his criticism is that there is far too great a focus on tests and that schools are only really preparing students to take tests and entrance exams for university. Ken argues that such importance on tests teaches students to avoid making mistakes, and that subsequently they will fail to be able to create anything truly original. Daniel Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence) would also add that traditional tests only seek to measure IQ, but that there are many other intelligences which contribute towards creativity and that many of these are actually better indicators of how well a child will fare in life.
When I taught in Japan I was always amazed at how instructivist the teaching was and yet how creative the Japanese can be. They are renowned for the quality of their flower arranging, manga, interior design, fashion and architecture. Their natural flair for attractive aesthetics may be due to the fact that graphic design has be ingrained in their culture since the Edo period of the 15th century. The Japanese are well know for their ability to assimilate parts of other cultures into their own and to reinvent and redesign. However, Ken Robinson talked of creativity as the ability to come up with new and novel ideas. Under this definition, does this make the Japanese less creative than I give them credit for? If not, does the suppression of creativity during early schooling lead to an explosion of creativity later in life?
Guardian online article: Fertile minds need feeding
