Creativity

Creativity. Where would we be without it? It's through creativity and individual originality that virtually everything in human existence has occurred. The you tube video was an amazing speech and it really was interesting to hear what he had to say about education and creativity. Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole speech to me was when he talked about Jillian who most likely had adhd and instead of being put on medication, was told to go to a dance school, where she flourished. I found this extremely interesting because I've never really agreed with medicating those with so-called "disabilities", but our society is so structured into classrooms where children are told to sit still all day and regurgitate information that the idea of sending a child to a dance studio in place of school is out of the question. However, each and every one of us is unique, so why wouldn't we want to do our best to cater to each and every one of our talents/abilities?

I also thought i was really interesting that he said our schools don't work the body, they work the mind, and mostly one side of the mind. I've been thinking about this for a while because I think that nutrition and exercise are essential parts of every person and that if we don't take care of ourselves physically, we will be worse off mentally. This can be contributed to the idea Ted explains as education taking away creativity. His first statements about how mistakes are viewed as bad things in school take away creativity in children. I think this is absolutely true. Individuals are scared to fail and miss a spelling word. Schools try to make every individual the same because they expect all children to learn information at the same time, perform at the same level, and show the same amount of discipline. It's quite ridiculous if you ask me.

I found that in my elementary school, some individuals were told that they were really creative. Creativity and Imagination is only encouraged in schools when children show talent in it. For instance, in art and music, if you can't draw a good picture or perform good music, teachers don't think you're creative. I have found that the individuals that are not as affected by the classroom are then ones that are most creative. By this I mean that if a student doesn't perform extremely well in the classroom and doesn't take it to heart isn't afraid to try new things because they are already know they're not the top of their class so what do they have to lose? It's a personality trait. Those who have a nag for creativity will be creative, while those who aren't talented will become classroom junkies.

I think that creativity and imagination above all else should be encouraged in the classrooms for the 21st century. Our world is changing and revolutionizing and in order to come up with new ways of doing things and help our world out for the better, we need creative individuals. If our world gets stuck in science and math, what good are those professions without imagination. We need to be creative and if schools are discouraging this, our world could be affected as a whole. Our school systems need to be restructured.