In a word... Yes. Schools are killing creativity. After watching a TEDTalks presentation by Sir Ken Robinson about the state of creativity in public education, the message is becoming clearer for me. It's not that I don't value creativity in the classroom, I have just fallen victim to the prevailing reality of "academic inflation," a term Robinson used to describe how degree requirements for jobs has increased over the years. The job you could get with a bachelors degree, now requires a masters degree, etc.. I spend so much time thinking g about how I need to prepare my students for the 21st century workplace; but what if my students are not meant for the traditional workplace, and how do we know what that workplace will look like?
Robinson also equated the education system to a strip-mining operation. When put into context, that is exactly what we are doing. We are strip-mining students' minds for strictly logical and practical development. The classroom is meant to help students get the right answers for the standardized tests and be able to write the appropriate response to writing prompts. This TEDTalk was given in 2006. At that time I would say that this was a public education problem, the lack of creativity. I have many friends that work in "independent" schools and they seem to be facing the same challenges in fostering creativity in their classrooms today. The schools that were created to be independent from the restrictions of federal guidelines are falling victim to the same constraints as public education, all for the purpose of enhancing our future workforce. Creativity is getting lost in education.
There are many Web 2.0 tools, apps, and technologies that allow for creativity to use in the classroom. In order to develop our students' intelligence, thinking back to Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and the diversity in intelligence, we need to include more opportunities for creativity. I like using movie-making apps like iMovie, MovieMaker, and digital storytelling software to help students tap into the visual and kinesthetic parts of their brains. Digital media is a perfect outlet for creativity. It engages all of the intelligences. Digital media can be a powerful tool if used in meaningful ways. Giving students this option can help us engage the student that is disengaged and give them a way to perform and excel using a nontraditional format.
Digital media alone cannot solve the problem of limited creativity in the classroom. Curriculums need to allow for opportunities to include creative options. We need to re-prioritize what is most important for real, quality learning and what will serve students most in the future. Do we need more factory workers and direction-followers or do we need more thinkers and trailblazers in our world?
Ken Robinson - "Do Schools Kill Creativity" on TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) website (available online)
Robinson also equated the education system to a strip-mining operation. When put into context, that is exactly what we are doing. We are strip-mining students' minds for strictly logical and practical development. The classroom is meant to help students get the right answers for the standardized tests and be able to write the appropriate response to writing prompts. This TEDTalk was given in 2006. At that time I would say that this was a public education problem, the lack of creativity. I have many friends that work in "independent" schools and they seem to be facing the same challenges in fostering creativity in their classrooms today. The schools that were created to be independent from the restrictions of federal guidelines are falling victim to the same constraints as public education, all for the purpose of enhancing our future workforce. Creativity is getting lost in education.
There are many Web 2.0 tools, apps, and technologies that allow for creativity to use in the classroom. In order to develop our students' intelligence, thinking back to Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and the diversity in intelligence, we need to include more opportunities for creativity. I like using movie-making apps like iMovie, MovieMaker, and digital storytelling software to help students tap into the visual and kinesthetic parts of their brains. Digital media is a perfect outlet for creativity. It engages all of the intelligences. Digital media can be a powerful tool if used in meaningful ways. Giving students this option can help us engage the student that is disengaged and give them a way to perform and excel using a nontraditional format.
Digital media alone cannot solve the problem of limited creativity in the classroom. Curriculums need to allow for opportunities to include creative options. We need to re-prioritize what is most important for real, quality learning and what will serve students most in the future. Do we need more factory workers and direction-followers or do we need more thinkers and trailblazers in our world?
Ken Robinson - "Do Schools Kill Creativity" on TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) website (available online)
No comments:
Post a Comment