Creativity in our Children.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Sir Ken Robinson addressed his concern about the creativity that we are all born with and the imagination that we all have, slowly being crushed by education (ironic - given that the sole meaning behind education is to nourish and feed knowledge) and pushed down the hierarchy of education. That Arts has become less and less important. As it becomes less important, those who are gifted and talented in the Arts, believe their talent is somewhat of a frivolous thing. Except the fact that we are all different. We think differently, we imagine differently - why must we throw our uniqueness away and become more of the same?

Robinson demonstrated that there is an inflation on education. In our society today, we need more and more degrees to make ourselves more marketable. Because of this, we are no longer focusing to enhance our uniqueness, but the concentration on everyone to be the same - doing the same routine work. We need to begin to nurture and feed the creativity within each of us, especially start children when they are young and continue to encourage children thinking differently is not just okay, but extraordinary.

"If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. " We need to encourage kids to think outside of the box. By that I mean, not dismissing or wrong the creative imagination expressed by them, but embrace it and praise them for being different. That's what I will do. Allow my students to explore their own insights in Math through methods of inquiry. I will empower them to think uniquely in their own way. We need to encourage children to be extraordinary in life and not ordinary. "Intelligence is diverse." We, as teachers, need to learn to allow creativity in our future class rooms; albeit, in projects or just plain exploration. Creativity is dying in the school system. It is up to us to stop it.

Thanks.