Sir Ken Robinson often talks about the modern school system killing creativity, and why creativity is so vital for our societies, as vital as literacy. I have some theories why.
Obviously, creativity is important for innovation and to adapt and change to different environments, but I believe it goes much deeper than that.
An important issue that I feel is not being talked about enough is how we train people to be dependent on others for information.
Information dependency is the habit of always looking to others for information. It is the habit and belief that if we can't find someone knowledgeable, we can't learn anything.
One of the biggest obstacles to a person achieving their dreams is a lack of belief in themselves.
If you think about how education methods transmit information to students, it almost always relies on the student being passive and following orders.
This trains people to be passive in life. I'm not saying that a passive method of learning is never appropriate, but there needs to be balance between a passive approach and an active one.
Self-learning is not just an idea, but is a skill that needs to be strengthened with practice. To encourage children to be curious and help them improve their ability to find out what they need teaches them so many things. It teaches them that curiosity can be good and helpful. It teaches them that if they don't like something about themselves, they can change it. And it teaches them how.
Most educational methods set the teacher up as the boss who cannot be questioned, who gives rules that cannot be deviated from. If this is all children are exposed to for 12-13 years of their life, imagine how this can lead to a passive approach in life.
This passive approach explains how people will look to someone else to "save" them or to "make things better". It leads to people complaining about things they don't like, but not look for solutions to change them. It erodes hope that we can change many things in our life and in ourselves. It can be a source of dissatisfaction with our lives. And it can hide the fact from us that life can be a wonderful laboratory to explore our life passions and a place to experience joy.
Of course education is not the only factor. But something that a child spends 12 or more years of their life in is going to have a huge impact on them. We need to look elsewhere to break these habits. But we shouldn't have to.
As Sir Ken Robinson states, we need to shift from an industrial model of education, to an agricultural model. That is, we need to focus on providing the right environment for learning without controlling too strongly the output that is created.
Because for us to measure who will be successful in life or not is extremely arrogant and prone to damaging errors. Society depends on a huge diversity of talents to thrive, and we can't predict what all those talents will be 12 years from now.
