Education: The Key To Success?

What if I told you that education may not be the key to our success in the future, but it is, instead, possibly diminishing and limiting our future?

After watching Sir Ken Robinson’s riveting TEDx Talk titled Do Schools Kill Creativity?, I found myself taking a step back and beginning to reevaluate my life. Although the TEDx Talk was filled with numerous jokes that kept me engaged and laughing every few minutes, Robinson made very valid points about today’s education system. A high emphasis is placed on academics, which to be fair, is understandable; however, the education system should be placing the same level of importance on the arts as well in order to nurture students’ creative side. But why should we pay attention to creativity in the first place? That question lingered through my mind throughout the video. I eventually went to Google Images and typed in “Education” into the search bar in order to understand how education is visually represented:

A screenshot of my Google Images findings for “Education”

Education is often associated with stacks of books, a graduation cap, and a job. Hmm…

Unfortunately, education wasn’t associated with creativity–just with the end result being a job. And as Robinson said, “we are now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst things you can make”. He further mentions that “if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original”. And perhaps this is why subjects such as mathematics and physics are appreciated and valued more in society than fine art subjects due to their concrete answers. But in the arts, responses and reactions vary from person to person due to their background knowledge and personal experiences. However, our world is advancing thanks to creativity. The technological advancements beneath our fingertips and the vehicles we ride every day weren’t developed in traditional classrooms, but from a mix of passion and creativity. The inventors of these life-changing things simply weren’t afraid to make mistakes.

A game I often associate creativity with is the wooden tangram (pictured below):

Wooden Tangram

 

The beauty behind this puzzle is that although you are only allowed to fill the box, there are multiple methods of approach. You can put the triangle in the left bottom corner or you can place the square in the center–the possibilities are endless. It forces you to be creative and think outside the box, so to speak.

An interesting activity we did in our Creative Thinking & Problem Solving class involved thinking outside the box. Our group’s task was to re-design the STOP sign, EXIT sign or bathroom sign. Such activities pique my interest due to its promotion of creativity. We tend to accept the things around us, but this activity tapped into the “Why?” aspect and forced us to tackle the issue with fresh eyes. Curiosity and the ability to suspend judgment and criticism are important for creativity to flourish.

Overall, during the video I found myself agreeing with every point Sir Robinson made, and do believe that the education system can be changed for the better in order to promote and foster creativity. And I also believe that we were all born as creative spirits, but we are taught out of it by our education system. This can be solved by providing students with less-guided instructions and promoting self-dependant learning in order to become a discoverer. Developing our own journey to self-discovery can increase our horizons in the near future since education alone may not be the sole key to our success.