Does School Destroy Our Creativity?

Photo taken from Education.

First of all I would like to wish all the teachers Happy Teachers Day!!

I really appreciate and grateful to these great group of individuals whom had devoted their life to educate us to be a better person in the future. Despite of our mischievousness and ignorance, they never failed to educate and bring out our potentials through knowledge, skills and values.

But there lies a problem that has significant effect to all those who had gone through the educational system. The question is…

Does school destroy our creativity? 

I still remember when I was in the kindergarten, education was fun. I love to go to school. I love to explore and I have a loads of things that intrigued me. In the kindergarten that I’ve went, the teachers were great, though they were strict they promote critical thinking and also do encourage us to do mistakes in our learning process. It does build up my interest in all the subjects that I learn. The best part is we’re constantly rewarded if we do well in class.

I believe most of you have this kind of similar experience too. That is why when we were kids, we will take a chance. If we don’t know how to do something, we will have a go on it. We are not frightened to do mistakes. We are not frightened to be wrong because there’s no punishment unless we are naughty.

As I entered primary school everything turned out to be completely different. Obviously the educational system was way different compared to what I have experienced in kindergarten. This time, teachers discourage us to do mistakes. Every single mistake will result in punishment. Under this educational system, we are trained to be like a parrot. “MEMORIZE THIS!” instructed by the teachers. We’re thought to memorize, but not to understand. Don’t ask why, just memorize! If wrong, spank you!

I and many others do understand and appreciate the good intention of our teachers, but this is not an effective way to educate the students.

Here is an interesting video that I would like to share with you. Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the development of innovation and human resources, has an interesting point of view on how destructive is our current education system.

This video is 20 minutes long and was recorded at TED Talks in 2006. I’m sure you’ll love his humour and great thoughts.

Here’s another video of his lecture at UCLA. This video takes about 1 and a half hour, but believe me it worth you the time.

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