Education - How it kills creativity &

how we are being programmed.

Children are extraordinarily creative. And we squander them very ruthlessly in the name
of education. In fact, every child is born is born creative but then as we grow old we
grow out of creativity. And it wont be wrong if I say that we are educated out of it. We
are educating people out of their creative and innovative capacities. We have become a
part of the system where human beings are programmed to be something, not
educated.
Picasso once said that all children are born artists. The real problem is to remain an
artist as we grow up.
Our entire education system is based on the idea of academic capability. This whole
system was designed in 19th century to meet the needs of industrialism. No such public
systems existed before this time. So, careers are basically the invention of 19 th century.
If we look around us, there is an extraordinary evidence of the variety and diversity of
human creativity and imagination. The following text of this articles talks about
education and creativity. The contention is that creativity isnt any less important than
education and our system should treat it with the same prestige.
Knowingly or unknowingly, we all have a huge interest in education and that its the only
thing that can take us into future which we cant grasp. Without education one of us has
any idea how it is going to play out in future.

We evaluate intelligence on the basis of academic ability. The universities have

designed the system in their own image. The entire system of public education is a
prolonged process for university entrance. Many geniuses, creative and talented people
think they are worthless because the things they were good at werent really valued at
school. The school is only interested in the grades and the number game, oblivious to
the undiscovered talents we all have. And we cant afford to be continuing that way.

Kids love to take chances and that works out pretty well with the development of
creativity. If they dont know how things are supposed to be, they will have a go at it, not
frightened to be wrong. Being creative and being wrong are obviously different things
but the point is we can never come up with something unique and innovative if we are
not prepared to be wrong. And by the time we grow up, we have lost this capacity, and
its too late. We become frightened, frightened to be wrong.
The irony is that industries are run by stigmatizing mistakes and our education systems
dont really have much of a margin for mistakes. And as a result, creativity is dying.
The subject hierarchy all around the world is quite similar too, which is strange.
Mathematics are at the top, then sciences and languages, followed by humanities and,
arts are at the bottom. Everywhere on this planet!
There isnt any education system on earth that teaches dance, drama, music etc to
children as we teach mathematics. It is rather important. Why is it so?
The basic idea of hierarchy is to keep useful subjects at the top. We are taken away
from certain things, as a child, on the grounds that you wont get a job and what will
people think about you. What we hear is that: You cant be an artist, not every child can
turn out to be Picasso. Dont be a musician, not every child can grow up to be
Beethoven. Why is it so?
Our academic abilities are not the perfect receptacles of our intelligence. We need to
rethink our definitions of intelligence based on logic and reality. For a job that required a
BA, now requires MA. For a job that required MA, now hires PhD only. This is termed as
academic inflation. Its a warning sign to the education system which is slipping
continuously day by day beneath our feet.
Intelligence, in fact, is diverse. It is wonderfully attractive. It cant be measured in a same

balance for everyone. We all have different tendencies and capacities. Creativity, related
to this intelligence, is in fact a process to come up with something originally unique and
valuable depending upon our own way of seeing things.
I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology,
one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity.
Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth, for a
particular commodity, and for the future, it wont serve us.

We have to rethink the

fundamental principles on which
were educating our children.
Theres a brilliant quote by
Jonas Salk, who said, If all the
insects were to disappear from
the earth, within 50 years all life
on earth would end. If all human
beings disappeared from the
earth, within 50 years all forms
of life would flourish.
And he is totally right. We dont
celebrate the gift of human
imagination. Sadly, we are
strolled through the paths which our teachers and parents lay out for us. We need to
reconstitute our idea of the fertility of human capacity.
Sir Ken Robinson, an educationalist, has suggested that education needs to develop in
three areas. First is the diversity of curriculum and individualization of learning process.
Second is creative teaching for which teachers are to be prepared and developed. Third
is the awakening of creativity by unconventional moral processes that focuses less upon
standardizing things for everyone. Creative approach to learning lacks everywhere
around the world. Robinson said, education is an organic system, not a mechanical
one. We are not robots who are being programmed to perform a specific task all our
lives. There shouldnt be command and control administration but the children should
be allowed to discover themselves and to be what they are.
To summarize this, it should be stated that children should be allowed to dream freely.
Their minds shouldnt be capped with the conventional career oriented thinking. Grades
do not measure intelligence nor does age measure maturity. Every being is unique in its
own way and thats the beauty of human intelligence, which is rarely appreciated by the
masses.