So over on Circular we’ve been talking about self awareness, creativity and Kanye West, lately. Like I’ve said before, we’re gonna be aiming to cover a wide-range of topics for you. But this one was too important to pass up.
A question posed by Sam Cole caused a lot of discussion on Circular itself and over on Twitter, too.
What do you think can be improved to help encourage creativity in schools?
What do you think?
It’s a hot topic, for sure. Last year, in this article, Tham Khai Meng says that “businesses without creativity at their core are doomed.” He writes that we are “taught the artificial skill of passing exams,” even though the ability to be creative is something we are born with.
A quick Google Search will have you thinking that the sole reason schools exist is to destroy the creativity of children. There’s a plethora of results with nearly every single one a condemnation of school systems around the world, and how they fail to utilise the creativity that Khai Meng says we are born with.
There is a PDF published by the National Foundation for Educational Research way back in December 2000 exploring how schools, from all around the world, approach “The Arts, Creativity and Cultural Education.” It’s by no means brief. It goes to show that this topic has been debated for a long time already. It’s not new at all.
There are further results, near enough year-on-year, up to the present day. Near enough every single result poses this same question of, “How can schools encourage creativity?” And, if not, it is something along those lines.
A look at Google Trends with the search term “school creativity” brings up the following;
This shows that though interest has risen and dipped periodically over the past 13 years (1st Jan 2004 is as far as Google will show), it has always been there. I’d say it has steadily been rising — on average — since around 2006. Coincidentally, this is around the time Sir Ken Robinson gave a TED talk titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
The majority of our users waded in pretty fast. Most of whom thought that schools did not do enough to encourage creativity, and thought they should actually allow kids to be creative for a start. Kadie thinks “the attitude towards creative subjects needs to be completely reformed… Imagination is no longer considered a viable asset,” while Farida said to “allow children to actually be creative,” drawing on experience to say the when in subjects like art, design, and music, they “couldn’t just do what we fancied.”
Allow children to actually be creative, I always hated the more ‘creative’ lessons like art or design or music because we couldn’t just do what we fancied. You always had a set task to complete or had to follow a certain style of doing something which for me takes away the creativity. — Farida
Sam’s personal experience boils down to how schools tend to be results driven — it’s the same case for my experience — and therefore you’d only typically get creative support when the teacher was overly passionate for the subject they taught.
I’m curious about whether creativity can even be taught in the first place. I think it is there, regardless, and more needs to be done during the extracurricular times to encourage creativity. This means that results from exams are still attainable; all while providing a safe space dedicated to painting, writing, music, and so on, without the pressure of teachers and exams.
Tev thinks that creativity, being a “rebellion against the norm,” would be encouraged by “do[ing] things out [of] the curriculum.” Similarly, Eya thinks that the key aspects are “playing, vacating, participating in sports, music and drama.”
Having shared the question to Twitter, as well, we got a few responses there;
Can’t say we aren’t fond of Ant’s idea 😉
Farida presented a different idea, too. Asking “why should they focus on creative subjects when it’s not what the job market demands?” Courtney suggested it is “about the focus on making people into workers and not bosses.”
This would suggest that it isn’t the role of schools to encourage the creativity of children. However, it’s difficult to imagine a school devoid of creativity and the encouragement of it. Almost makes me think that schools would literally — not figuratively — become a factory to transform children into workers.
It’s interesting to view schools in this way — it’s a widely held belief after all. Though it is not something she necessarily agrees with, Farida questions “what’s the use in finding out you’re a good artist?” considering schools are “there to prepare us for life.”
I think that final bit is essential to keep in mind. Schools are there to “prepare us for life.” However, we’re headed into this life almost blind. With how much change is taking place — whether it be in education, the environment, technology, or anything else—in this World, it can be incredibly daunting growing up nowadays.
Sir Ken Robinson says in his talk that it is education that is “meant to take us into this future that we can’t grasp.” Personally, I’d prefer an education that can show us our entire creative potential, all while preparing us for life.
What are your thoughts? Leave your thoughts as a response below, or over on Twitter, and let us know 👊🏼
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