Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Creativity now is as important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.

—Sir Ken Robinson

We've just heard advice from an Oscar winner on encouraging creativity in our kids. While we're on the subject, here's a question: Are our schools encouraging children's creativity—or are they killing it?

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson addresses this question in a funny and insightful talk on TED.com. I highly recommend it. In case the full 20-minute version seems too long, you can listen to about 9 minutes of highlights that someone put together on YouTube. If you want to hear more from Robinson, check out Riz Khan's interview with him; it's  in two parts, here and here, each about 11 minutes long.

As the mother of a girl who dances, I was particularly touched by Robinson's story about dancer and choreographer Gillian Lynne. If you don't listen to anything else, you still might want to listen that part, starting at 15 minutes into the TED talk.

The diagnosis for Lynne, who couldn't focus or sit still in class as an 8-year-old back in the 1930s? "Gillian isn't sick. She's a dancer."

I add a heartfelt thank you to the teachers, principal, and staff at my daughter's school for encouraging creativity in their students every day.

Comments

[Marco Zecchin]

Thank you Kathleen for this post!

I always try to find (or create) a reason to bring Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk to the attention of my students, fellow artists and educators. His presentation is marvelous and Gillian's amazing real life story a testament to seeing challenges (ADD and otherwise) as creative opportunities for all concerned.

Teaching creativity opens the mind to possibilities that can not be taught!!

[Lori]

I think it's very important for a child to be able to create and discover new ideas and concepts, but creativity is sometimes stifled in the classroom. Every child is unique and doesn't meet the one size fits all criteria and I think we need to allow for each child's individual learning style to be met in order for each child to grow to their full potential.