Sir Ken Robinson Says...

Ken Robinson, in his very entertaining speech, comes to the conclusion that schools "educate [children] out of creativity." Now... This proposes a problem for us teachers (and to-be teachers), seeing as we educate children. Personally, I do not want to be blamed for creating a classroom devoid of creativity. I plan to teach literature which cannot exist without creativity. Literature depends upon creativity; it is essential. As a teacher of literature, you must allow for that creativity in literary analysis.

I think I would agree with his view that schools have educated the creativity right out of the child. It is true that schools do not allow much room for creativity. Art classes are optional. For many children whose parents want them on the fast track to an Ivy League school, they do not have time for these electives. This coincides with what Ken Robinson had to say about the value placed on creative venues. Arts are at the bottom of the education system. This is proved by the fact that they are electives. Math, science, and the required subjects are, obviously, required for graduation, while drama, music, or art are merely 'for fun' subjects. Thinking back to English classes where we had to make up our own poem or something like that, there were often kids who groaned about how difficult that would be. They preferred math and the more concrete subjects to papers where they knew what was expected of them. With English classes, they had to actually create their own original ideas and then have those ideas graded. It was not concrete, and thus didn't know what was expected of them.

What he said about the fact that students don't go into what they enjoy (If that subject happened to be in the arts) because the subject that they liked was stigmatised and unvalued, I believe is true to a respect. It is difficult to major in art, or to major in drama, or to major in music. Those subjects aren't emphasised in high schools, and if you do not attend a school pertaining specifically to one of those subjects, then it is difficult to major in that subject in college, especially if you want something that is very specified.

I think that, in the classroom, creativity is something that is either applied or not. A teacher can accept a creative interpretation of a novel, or he or she can deny it. If denied, the student will most likely shut down that creativity and follow the pack once again. In that respect, I believe a teacher needs to be very lenient in accepting creativity to allow the students to explore their own thoughts and ideas.

I would look at it from your own point of view. Would you rather attend a class where all of your original ideas are shot down, or would you rather attend a class where everyone has unique, original ideas? The choice should be obvious. Another viewpoint is if you would rather attend a class where a teacher lectures the entire class period or a class where the teacher is using original ideas to get his or her point across to the students in a unique way. I know, personally, I would prefer the latter in both cases.