Do schools kill creativity?

pacquiao

Do schools kill creativity?

Very interesting video i came across tonight.

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

jonseyblub

In many different ways the whole education system (not just the school) does kill creativity. The kids we see in front of us have so many talents which can not be tested in a 3 hour exam on a scorching hot day in June. I get very involved in musicals/sports etc in our school and I'm constantly overwhelmed by how talented some of the students are. Unfortunately ultimately colleges dont care too much for this just the amount of points they receive. As a result I find myself teaching for the exam more often than not and that in itself is killing creativity within schools.

THENORTHSIDER

fantastic piece

Ambersky

Thank you pacquiao for posting that video on creativity.
I have been concerned for a long time about the influence the buisness model has been having on education.
The above video addresses the heirarchy of values placed on subjects really well with its over reliance on academic performance probably expressed in the Irish context as the push for points.

I am also concerned about the effect of the kinds of measures being introduced to enhance teachers performance.
Performance enhancement is being puhed forward in all kinds of areas not only education and in the panic of the economic downturn it has been presented as something we all have to accept.

Id like to post another video here, which doesnt change the subject as I think it is directly related to the ways schools can kill the creativity of teachers with more and more paper work, policies, meetings and rules.

Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXI2rgz8XZY

The truth is that neither rules nor incentives are enough to do the job.
What happens is that as we turn increasingly to rules, rules and incentives may make things better in the short run, but they create a downward spiral that makes them worse in the long run.
Moral skill is chipped away by an over-reliance on rules that deprives us of the opportunity to improvise and learn from our improvisations.
And moral will is undermined by an incessant appeal to incentives that destroy our desire to do the right thing. And without intending it, by appealing to rules and incentives, we are engaging in a war on wisdom

You can read the full transcript for this talk herehttp://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html