I'd like to continue the thread on education started in my last blog entry with a look at one of the down sides of the just-in-case approach to education. Our educational system today drums creativity out of our children by making mistakes a bad thing. You can't be creative if you aren't willing to make mistakes.
This, in turn, threatens our children's ability to be creative, adaptive, and innovate in the face of an uncertain future that demands the very creativity, adaptability, and innovation that we drummed out of them in school.
The TED Conference is held every year in Monterey, CA. TED is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. In February 2006, Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, and a leading expert on innovation, creativity, and education gave a talk (see video) on creativity in our educational system. Take a look ... his talk is humorous and impassioned (originally from the TED Blog.
My girlfriend is a fifth grade school teacher in California. At least at her school, there are no art classes. Mind you, the state standards still require some art to be taught. But since there is no test at the end of the year on art (you get E for Effort), not much attention is paid to teaching it. I personally find this very sad and concerning.
And yet I have a vivid memory of art class when I was in third or fourth grade. I finished my drawing, I was proud of the fact that I didn't do it the way the other kids did. My drawing had flare and was messy in just the right way - for me. When I turned it in, the art teacher summarily rejected it saying that I had to go back to my desk and finish drawing everything to the edge of the page. Even art class can be co-opted into drumming out creativity.
Is our current educational system preparing us for the future - a future that we can't grasp today? From what I have seen, I conclude that the answer is no.
My speculation is that the following are the core competencies needed as we move into future:
- Self-leadership - authoring one's own life (over and over again)
- Adaptability - acceptance of the need to change coupled with the willingness to try something new - even if we risk making mistakes - in order to discover what works
- Innovation - offering new ways to take care of our concerns as human beings in a world that is growing ever more complex and foreign
Each of these requires - in large measure - creativity. As Robinson says, "Education is meant to take us into a future that we can't grasp." But if education drums the creativity right out of us, where will this creativity come from?
Personally, I trust that we'll find a creative way to self-leadership, adaptability, and innovation even with an education system that drums creativity out of us. Creativity loves a great challenge, don't you think?
-Steve
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