"All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
Pablo Picasso
A teacher is holding court at the front of her class of students. She gives the children arts materials and paper and asks them to draw whatever they like. After 20 minutes of walking around and looking at pictures of cars and flowers she comes to a girl at the back of the room. The teacher asks the girl what she is drawing; she replies with enthusiasm "I am drawing a picture of God..." "Well that is interesting, but how can you draw God when no one knows what God looks like?" replied the teacher. The girl looked up with a determined glance and said "Well, everyone will know now because I have drawn Him!"
This story has been told to me many times through various guises but its message still rings with poignancy; young people's education is becoming less and less creative.
I was recently in discussion with some emerging leaders from across the UK and we were discussing just this. Our experience of the education system is too fragmented and is focused too much on literacy and maths; creativity has a bad name.
My personal experience of working in schools is that teachers are over worked, not encouraged to think outside of the box and are made to focus on exam results. There is far too much going on for teachers and and students to lift their heads from the education trough to even start to think about learning. I also have seen some amazing creative work that has young people engaging in education that stimulates and gets to the core of what great education is all about.
Sir Ken Robinson sums this thinking up very articulately at a TED conference in 2006. I would highly advise watching the video:
Ken Robinson - Do Schools Kill Creativity?
This post is the first of many about my belief that the formal education structure within the UK needs to change, where creativity is encouraged and embedded within young peoples learning.
Read More:
A teacher is holding court at the front of her class of students. She gives the children arts materials and paper and asks them to draw whatever they like. After 20 minutes of walking around and looking at pictures of cars and flowers she comes to a girl at the back of the room. The teacher asks the girl what she is drawing; she replies with enthusiasm "I am drawing a picture of God..." "Well that is interesting, but how can you draw God when no one knows what God looks like?" replied the teacher. The girl looked up with a determined glance and said "Well, everyone will know now because I have drawn Him!"
This story has been told to me many times through various guises but its message still rings with poignancy; young people's education is becoming less and less creative.
I was recently in discussion with some emerging leaders from across the UK and we were discussing just this. Our experience of the education system is too fragmented and is focused too much on literacy and maths; creativity has a bad name.
My personal experience of working in schools is that teachers are over worked, not encouraged to think outside of the box and are made to focus on exam results. There is far too much going on for teachers and and students to lift their heads from the education trough to even start to think about learning. I also have seen some amazing creative work that has young people engaging in education that stimulates and gets to the core of what great education is all about.
Sir Ken Robinson sums this thinking up very articulately at a TED conference in 2006. I would highly advise watching the video:
Ken Robinson - Do Schools Kill Creativity?
This post is the first of many about my belief that the formal education structure within the UK needs to change, where creativity is encouraged and embedded within young peoples learning.
Read More:
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