Why Schools Kill Creativity

“ Every child is an artist. Problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” – Pablo Picasso

Why+Schools+Kill+Creativity

Why does school kill creativity? A touchy question to educators, but asking these types of uncomfortable questions are the ways we can improve upon our school system.

 

Educator and speaker Sir Kenneth Robinson thinks so. On his TED talk ”Do Schools Kill Creativity?”  he made a point of saying that “We’ve been taught to be afraid of giving the wrong answer, that if you’re not prepared to be wrong then you won’t come up with anything original. And by the time they get to be adults most kids have lost that capacity. They have become afraid of being wrong”.

 

I believe this to be true. How many times have you wanted to answer a question but were too afraid to answer? The way our system has been implemented is they teach, we learn, then we take a test. This is useful to some students, but not all students learn this way. Everyone is different, so everyone learns a little bit different than the other.

 

It’s like that whole thing where they say that the left side of your brain is for logic and the right side is artistic. Some might like art class more than math class and vice versa. Everyone has a different calling in their life, and I believe that was the important point Sir Kenneth Robinson was making. He even went so far to say, that the way they teach us is to produce professors. I, for one, am not that interested in becoming a professor and I’m sure not even half the students attending are interested in becoming professors either. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that. There are other ways to learn and to become a master of your craft. We’ve been taught, no don’t be a musician don’t be an artist that’s silly.
Now go back to work.

 

I’m not saying school is bad. I’m just trying to put it into perspective. I believe it needs some change in the way the educational institute works. I mean we are the future, and instead of teaching us the same things in the same way over and over again, we need to be taught how to think for ourselves and not for other people.

 

To here the full TED talk click the link below.

 

Do Schools Kill Creativity?