Creativity is import for us as it allows changes and to
develop the world. Being unique is important and creativity allows us to be
unique. But in Education could the
taught to test and the way the curriculum works prevent us from being able to
express our creativity and uniqueness?
Ken Robinsons states “Many highly talented, brilliant,
creative people think they’re not – because the thing they were good at school
wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatised.” He also says that “the current
education system was designed and conceived for a different age” meaning that
maybe the way that education works today isn’t the right education and
standards need to be raised. After watching a video- linked below, this gives a real insight as to education and does it kill creativity. Instead of anaesthetising children to get them through education we should be opening them up to different ideas and making them come to life with their talents and abilities inside them.
These days it seems to be that education is modelled purely on industrialisation and the image of it because as Robinson states “they still are organised on factory lines such as ringing bells, separate facilities, having separate subjects” These days it should be about putting everyone in to the same style of education as different people can perform better than other even at different age levels. So why are we putting our kids through school in somewhat ‘batches’ rather than allowing them to potentially use their creativity to perform well?
Divergent thinking is an essential capacity for creativity. Allowing you to see different interpretations of questions and answers and finding different outcomes. This allows the person to become unique and different.
A test was carried out on 1500 people in a book which was given to them called ‘Break Point and Beyond’. If you scored above a certain level you would be considered a genius at divergent thinking. 98% of kindergarten children scored this percentage however, because this was a longitudinal study, the same children were tested five years later and another five years later which showed remarkable answers. Because they had been educated, they had only been told that there is one answer to the question given and it’s normally given to them. This isn’t because teachers want it this way it’s because it happens this way because of the ‘gene pool of education’.
“A viable alternative vision that frames education as a
transformative and creative process rather than merely an informative one” (Kegan,
2000)
References
Kegan, R. (2000).What “Form" Transforms?: A
Constructive-developmental Approach to Transformative Learning. In J. Mezirow
(Ed.) & Associates, Learning as Transformation (pp. 3- 34). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.