Do schools kill creativity
Sir Ken Robinson is a world famous authority on education who says that the creativity our children are born with, is knocked out of them by the school system. His strong belief is that our whole education system is geared towards creating University graduates. Watch this fascinating and funny presentation by a famous educator.
Can ADHD medication be stifling hidden talents?
Sir Ken Robinson tells the story of a young girl who, many years ago was failing at school and could not sit still. She was always fidgeting. The mother took her daughter to see a specialist who spoke to the mother while the daughter sat beside her for about 20 minutes. She had been instructed by her mother to sit on her hands. After that time, he told the child he needed a private chat with her mother outside the office which had large windows. Before he left the room he tuned a radio to a music channel. Once outside, he told the mother to observe her daughter. The child stood up and began to sway to the music. Then she started to dance. The doctor said to the mother, your child is not ill, she’s a dancer! It seems that a proportion of people have to move to think. The difficult decision to prescribe medication for ADHD students may be stifling some latent talent.
The STEM curriculum
The school curriculum in Australia is currently being focused on STEM subjects (Science, Maths, Technology and Engineering). Primary schools included! Ken Robinson describes a push for students to study towards a hierarchy of work that puts academics and scientists at the top and artists and musicians at the bottom. He says we must revue the whole idea of intelligence.
We must see our children’s creativity as a richness to be cherished. We must see our children as offering hope to face looming challenges. Our task is to educate the whole being of a child to have the attributes to solve these encroaching problems.
