Do schools kill creativity?
When my wife visited a college friend’s home, she saw several framed paintings on the wall. It was drawn by her friend when she was still a kid. My wife was surprised because no one in their group knew their friend can paint. When asked to do another painting for them, her friend simply said she can’t do it anymore. She stopped painting when she started high school.
All our children are born as artists. I believe so. My 6-year old paints and my 2-year old loves to sing all day. As they grow old, many of their creative talents are put aside as they focus more on mathematics, sciences, history and other disciplines that we know are more important than painting or singing.
Why is Math more important than singing? As Sir Ken Robinson points out, every educational system on the planet was designed to meet the needs of 19th century industrialization. Subjects that are useful at work are at the top of the hierarchy. This is why our government is establishing more science schools and spends more money on science and engineering than on the arts.
As parents, we are proud of what our kids can do. We love seeing them singing, dancing, acting out commercials from TV, or building devices out of blocks or paper. Children do things that they like but as they grow old we tell them not to paint because they can never get a job as an artists, or as a singer, or as a dancer. A few years ago, there was a TV commercial (by PLDT) about a college student who was sent to the city to study and become a doctor, just like his father. As it turned out, the boy doesn’t want to become a doctor. He wants to take Fine Arts but he was too afraid to tell his father so as not to disappoint him. Fortunately, his father eventually supported him.
Below is a presentation by Sir Robinson on education and creativity. It is an entertaining and mind-opening presentation on how we should prepare our kids for the future. In this presentation he told the story of Gillian Lynne. When she was a kid, the school told her parents that she has a learning disorder — that she can’t concentrate. Her parents decided to consult a doctor. In the meeting, the doctor asked Gillian’s parents to leave her alone in the room. But before they left, the doctor turned on the radio. After a brief moment, Gillian started dancing. The doctor told her parents that Gillian is not sick; she is a dancer and they should enroll her in a dance school. Today, kids like Gillian would be under medication for having ADHD.
… by seeing our creative capacities for the richness that they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being so they can face this future. By the way, we may never see this future but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it.
— Sir Ken Robinson
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thank you for this. Ken Robinson’s ideas strike a chord and resonates. we need new ways of looking at how we educate our children. In fact the increase in new schools offering non-traditional approaches are a testament to this.
Do you have a list of schools offering alternatives to math-science-focused curriculum? It would be nice for our readers to become aware of such non-traditional approaches.
I’ve been looking for place or an art center where my two kids could further enhance their talents in drawing/painting. I really believe they have the talents but I just don’t know where to enroll them, I want them to draw/pain during saturdays or sundays. My daughter is six years old while my son is four years old. They can both draw well. Hope you could help me.
Hi Mrs. Lozada,
I’ll ask my friends in UP Diliman if they have special courses in arts for kids.
Regards.
people who need to move to think.i think my 6 y.o. son is one of them.he’s in level 3-4,gr.1 and in 2 months since school opened,his teachers comments are all the same.he moves around,he keeps fidgeting with his pencils,goes out of the classroom.teachers always persuade him to finish his schoolwork.he just wanted to draw-ALL THE TIME.i accidentally found this site while scouting for a Creative school(non-traditional) where i would like to transfer my son.i am afraid he’ll be traumatized with the endless reminders from the teachers and the many hours he is spending in the TIME-OUT chair.I hope you could help. by the way, we live in Muntinlupa City.Thank you!
I would also be interested to know of schools that offer quality non-traditional education. My daughters (9 and 7 years old) are enrolled in a catholic girls’ school that has a math-science based curriculum. It would be nice to receive any information on schools offering alternative or non-traditional education.
The following schools offer alternative approaches to schooling. Unfortunately, not all of them have websites
Diliman Preparatory School
The Learning Tree
PWU-Jose Abad Santos Memorial School
Community of Learners Foundation
Angelicum
Child Development Center - UP PAUW (in UP Campus)
Mother Goose School
Headway School of Giftedness
Yes, specially science high school. It do kill student creativity. I am also a victim of this system. The educator do not prioritize this area in the academe. We focus on Math, Sci, Eng and recently technology.
I am an elementary art teacher. I want to suggest to parents who want to nurture their children’s creativity to buy art supplies and make an area of the home an easily cleaned place to do artwork and get messy. Some creative children dislike the idea of formal art classes while others thrive on the group experience. I teach over 800 4th graders a week; often the students who are constantly in trouble for talking too much or getting out of their seats are the most creative, artistic, imaginative, and quite frankly my favorite students. So many talented adults have painful memories of being in trouble in school all the time. Imagine Robin Williams as a ten year old! And schools tend to cut art and music classes to focus more time on academics. Creative children (that’s 100% of all kids) need creative outlets so their souls don’t starve. I think that adults ought to sit down every day after work and color with crayons or paint or mush around in clay, with their children (borrow some if you don’t have your own kids). Everyone would be much happier.
The argument is questionable given the high grades and level of creativity in countries known to have traditional forms of education, such as Finland and Singapore.
My guess is what kills creativity is not school but the following:
1. an emphasis on mass entertainment and other distractions;
2. the absence of a strong continuing education program for all citizens, not just students;
3. poverty;
4. the lack of funding for public education, if not education in general; and
5. the absence of private and public sector support for cultural institutions such as libraries, museums, heritage sites, nature parks, and so on.
Middle class families and large Philippine corporations can spend on many of these things and even for themselves but it’s possible that this might not be the case. The amount of money spent, for example, on trips abroad, expensive cell phones and other gadgets, fancy cars and clothes, recreation like golf, and services like cable TV might be higher than the amount spent on, say, books, educational videos, and even trips to museums and libraries.
This one’s giving me fits these days, Greg! Been looking at alternative systems to which I could dump my precious kid.
Even if I have to learn Montessori, Suzuki or Kindermusik myself …
Have nothing against traditional but I think its time we try something different. Worst that could happen is my kid becoming fully human and loving life and maybe truly embracing that ignorance is bliss.
Home school or network schooling anyone? Need advice.
Best.
alain
alain: There’s a nice thread on home-schooling here: http://www.schoolhouse.ph/is-home-schooling-better.html
this passage plus the video really makes me think more about our current day education.
My 5 year old daughter is enrolled in a non-traditional school - Happy Tykes Child Care and Learning Center. However, the school only offers from toddler up to prep. For those interested, you may visit the school’s website. www.happytykes.net.
This article is a mind opener.
To ms. Rachelle Santos,
I’m so much interested to bring my toddler daughter at UP PAUW Child Care Center. Do you have any contact no. of this center? Hope you cud reply to me thru text. My no. is 09062345606.
Thank you.