Do Schools Kill Creativity?

      I agree with Sir Ken Robinson when he speaks about  extraordinary evidence of creativity  and capacity in children and the fact that we as adults and teachers , either overlook them or take it to be ' something wrong' with the children. We do almost everything except nurturing that talent and creativity. It does not surprise me when he attributes it to the fact that we value intelligence over creativity. The creativity thus, gets murdered by our notions and set of beliefs. We have so much hyped the intelligence part of education that we see it a measure of  successful education. He emphasises that creativity is as important as literacy.

      

       Another interesting thing he says is that 'fear of going wrong kills originality'.How true is that! We are so afraid of being wrong that we just cannot be original. Creativity and inventions are all about risk taking and going beyond what is evident . If we fear taking risks, we cannot indulge in the everlasting realm of creativity. He puts forth that we have reduced intelligence to academic ability . And all education seems to be taking us away from our body, thus limiting us to our heads. Unless you have all your senses working freely , without thinking academically, you cannot have time and chance to nurture your creativity within. He rightly brings up the case of academic inflation and that we have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children. 

      We as teachers have a role in discovering and  nurturing creativity. Unlike the teacher in the example quoted by Sir Robinson, the teachers have to be diagnostic and see things in a positive light. We as teachers can make or mar creativity amongst children.The onus on us is hence very clear. We have to provide opportunities to the children to be creative and show their productive side and hone it. We also have to be careful that our children do not fear risk taking. Apart from producing a class of engineers and doctors- the intellectuals , we must not forget the need to discover dancers, painters and writers. The labour market situation as we see it today is just the result of overlooking this fact. The video brings in us a sense of responsibility as teachers and cautions us not to kill the creativity and make the talent suffer.