"All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up."-Picasso
I recently watched a very moving Ted Talk in my Dance Lab class that focused on reforms in education and the way our current system is producing students that have been trained since the beginning of their education out of their creativity.In this Ted Talk, Ken Robinson proposes an education system the nurtures (and not undermines) creativity in young children. I recommend you watch the clip I included from 5:50 to 6:33 to obtain the main idea of the lecture.
"As children grow up, we start educating them progressively from the waist up." - Ken Robinson
Our system of education is in the middle of a great revolution. With academic inflation (college degrees becoming useless to find jobs, most of which now requiring a BA or a PhD 10 years ago) combined with the emphasis of academic success, numerical test scores, and the growing fear of being wrong in young learners has defined the system of education. The arts are no longer valued or taken seriously in schools, being put on the bottom of the hierarchy of subjects. The arts, the roots of creativity, are being cheated in the education systems.
Here, Ken Robinson proposes to put just as much emphasis in a subject like dance as math is currently taught in schools today. The key to success for society and its progression is not memorizing formulas or mastering shakespeare's many sonnets, but to take understandings of academics and applying them in a creative, successful, unique way.
Why are school systems across the world rate core academics rated more important than the arts in the hierarchy-based system if creativity is now much more valued in society today? How do school systems "train children out of creativity"? Does New Trier's system, offering an intense academic learning environment & wide variety of arts, train its student in or out of creativity?
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