Do School's Kill Creativity?

For us future teachers out there this is a question we all should put some deep thought into. If you have never put much thought into this then watch this video by Sir Ken Robinson, maybe after watching  you may have a different opinion..

Last Thursday in our Mathematics Class our professor played this video for our class, for most of the class this was a new video to them, but for me it was my second time hearing this wonderful explanation,(the first time being in a class about the gifted child). This video captivated me yet again, Sir Ken Robinson mentioned so many true and realistic problems that happen within our school systems that I think many teachers forget is happening, and as a future teacher issues I hope I can prevent from happening.

Looking back on my days in Elementary School and High School even the first few years of University, I can remember times where my own personal opinion or my thought and ideas were considered to be "wrong" or "incorrect", but really how can someone say that your own personal opinion about a topic be wrong? Everyone is unique and different, and this is where the school systems begins to show its flaws. 

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” — Ken Robinson

This quote really sums it up, like in the video Sir Ken says something along the lines of that young children are not afraid of being wrong, they will give you their thoughts and feelings without being embarrassed or afraid of the response in return. Think back to when you were younger, there probably was not much that you were afraid of, you felt invincible, that you could take on the world, many of you even pretended to be super heroes at some point. Our creative minds would run endlessly, and we had no problems to keep ourselves preoccupied. Now think to when you first started school, and you got your first test back and seen the tiny little x marks, or your teacher made you feel embarrassed for speaking your mind. After so many times of getting your comments and opinions felt to be wrong, that invincible carefree feeling we once had as young children soon being to vanish and we lose our spark of using our imaginations and creativeness in the fear of being WRONG!

“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.” — Ken Robinson

As a future teacher, I appreciate that our professors take the time to show us videos like this, to help us realize that we do take the fun and creativity away from school and we do play a huge role in why children lose their creative talents and their imaginations. It gives us the opportunity to be the change in the school systems to allow each child as they enter school and go through each grade to be able to keep their creative mind without altering them to be like everyone else.

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein