So every once in a while I watch videos on TED TV
And I happened upon this talk, on “do schools kill creativity”:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
This guy Ken Robinson talked about how schools tend to suppress creativity, and how schools ought to somehow change, to teach creativity. He’s a good speaker, he has a lot of audience management technique. I really admire his use of humor and pacing of content.
He makes a good point, and I am glad to hear him making it, but the problem, I think, is actually a whole lot worse.
While Mr. Robinson states that public schools were created to serve industry, that is more of a British thing . . . According to a book called “The Twelve Year Sentence,” in America in the late 1800’s, the primary purpose of the new system of compulsory public education (italics mine) was to assimilate all the many ethnically diverse immigrant children that were coming to the USA.
So the openly stated original purpose of the America public education system was to instill social conformity. This model has not changed significantly. If you doubt this, think back to 7th grade and think of just how free you were to be yourself in that culture. And remember, you had no choice– if you did not come to school, there were truant officers who would come and get you.
Now in discussing possible visions of the future, let’s try and put our grand idealism aside for a moment, and instead be honest here and admit that we address a lot of different priorities in our school systems. And doing so often gets us off the point of bringing out the best in our students.
To illustrate this point, may I suggest checking out one of my favorite examples of how political interests overwhelm educational ideals: In “The Language Police” the author presents all the words censored out of textbooks to please any and all known political constituencies. (See this article by the author:) http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110004691
Fact is, virtually every public school system in the USA is based on bureaucratic conformity. We have standardized tests, and most students are required to meet the same “minimum” (read: maximum) requirements. But even beyond that, there is a whole culture of conformity that is taught as well, for both students and for teachers, as we like to feel that we have complete control over the people minding the kids. It never ceases to amaze me when I hear friends of mine who are public school teachers talk about the litany of red tape that their day consists of. They are doing their best, but they have to work within the confines of a government-run institution.
Given the existing culture, I question whether American schools could ever actually “teach creativity,” when for the past 100+ years they have been designed to do the exact opposite. What shall we do? If a kid has a brainstorm in the middle of gym class, will you hand them a “creativity slip” and let them run wild? I have trouble envisioning that. Such grand general ideals for what education “could be” are very heartwarming, and they make everyone feel good to talk about them in the realm of the someday/abstract, but in practical terms, I find it hard to believe that very much will change.
As it is, we are seeing more and more that education– in the sense that it trains people to follow rules and think the same way, and know the same things and have the same set of basic skills– is actually becoming a liability. An interesting statistic here: four of the five richest Americans are college dropouts. (Warren Buffet is the odd man out– but just fyi, he was rejected when he applied to Harvard Business School). And Ted Turner should be on that list somewhere– he was expelled from Brown.
Another example of college dropouts having an edge in the internet age:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/the-customer-is-the-company.html
With this data, one could make a compelling argument that the lack of “formal” education is actually an advantage when it comes to being innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial, especially in the internet age.
Creativity is no longer a nice idea of something we ought to do– it’s something we have to do. In the coming years, more and more jobs will be outsourced as the internet makes it more and more possible for someone across the globe to enter your market and do your job cheaper. If you are to survive or even prosper, you must offer something unique. And to do that you have to be creative. And to be creative, you have to be able to think outside of what you have been taught, as those teachings may actually be a handicap to you.
Schools do not teach how to do that. They teach the opposite. Someday that may change, but you can’t afford to wait that long. So you must do it on your own.
The first step in regaining use of your creativity is overcoming the fear of doing something different that was taught to you every day in your school experience. And that’s why I wrote “Principles of Applied Stupidity.” Your creativity is already there, but to take full advantage of it, one of the first things you need to do is overcome your learned fear of “looking stupid” when acting on it.
You can read excerpts and see videos on my website . . .
©Justin Locke
