It's an odd thing (and probably familiar to you if you ever 'learned' art from old style art teachers), that while we value creativity and imagination in very young children, as they grow older we keep insisting that they must 'live in the real world', as if the real world is somehow better, or more desirable than their imaginations.
Then, all of a sudden, we ask them to be innovative, and use flexible thinking in their problem solving, and when they get into (some) workplaces, they have to learn all over again how to trust their imaginations. And at this point, organistions spend gazillions of dollars in getting people like Edward de Bono to develop creativitity and innovation and 'thinking ourside the box' in their employees. As CS Lewis says in the Narnia books, "it is always the stupidest children who are the most childish, and the stupidest grown-ups who are the most grown up". If we want intelligent and creative grown-ups, we need to encourage children to be intelligent and to reward and feed their imaginations.
Something, somewhere has gone horribly wrong with education.
Slowly, teachers and pedagogues are changing this, and trying to retain and develop imagination and creativity. Except around NAPLAN time, of course. We are linking arts across the curriculum, and using visual, dramatic, musical and creative arts within and between curricula. Arts have snuck out of the art lesson, and are suddenly playing in science and maths, taking up class time in English and doing the hard yards in SOSE. And children are having a greater opportunity to explore and get their hands covered in clay and paint, and are engaging their intelligences in lots of new and rewarding ways.
So here is an incredibly creative animation, of the innovative Sir Ken Robinson, a crusader about education reform, and a champion of creativity in children, adolescents and adults, talking about reforming education and keeping the creativity in the classroom.
Because if we don't encourage creativity in the classroom, and we actively discourage or punish those who display it, how on earth can we expect our population to suddenly become innovative and inventive and inspire others?
Ahhh...this gives me hope!
ReplyDeleteIt also makes me sad though, as it reminds me of my mother who passed away last year at 86. She was almost an obsessive compulsive creative...if there is a such a thing...and had so much to offer the teaching world but because she was so WILD in her approach and ideas, and just couldn't stomach the steps to become "properly qualified" (nor behave herself in a classroom setting...or anywhere else for that matter!)she never quite grasped the opportunities which I think would have satiated her natural state as creative arts educator.Perhaps if she had been born into this current age things might have been different, as many of her wild ideas are starting to pop up like magic all over the place!