Education and the power of creativity

When it comes to living a full life, you need to be a creative thinker and problem solver. There are no guidelines or instruction manuals on how to do things – raise a family, make a living, make the most of your time. You need to be resourceful and imaginative and find the solutions that work best for you and those you care about.

And creative thinking has never been more necessary than it is today, especially if we’re to prepare our children (and grandchildren) for their future. A friend once said to me – the jobs that the current school kids will get when they are adults probably don’t even exist now. AI and tech is changing so fast. Being able to think for yourself, get creative and find your own path are essential skills when preparing for a future that is such an unknown.

But is our education system really setting up the next generation to thrive in these circumstances?

Our naval gazing grading system

There’s no getting away from the fact that in schools today, the focus has shifted to more and more assessments (both of teachers’ performance and children’s). League tables have meant that everything that is taught has to be homogenised so that there is a level playing field with a naval gazing grading system. Who does this benefit?  

Ultimately, it leaves little room for creativity amongst teachers but also amongst our children (Sir Ken Robinson does an amazing job of highlighting the demise of creativity in our schools in his TED talk). And we’re not just talking about the obvious creative subjects – art, music, drama – which are missing out on funding and are often the first to go when cutbacks hit and school budgets are tight.

Creativity is something that arises and is needed in all subjects – maths, the sciences, literature – and it needs to be nurtured. Rather than dictating the right way to solve a problem or find the answer (as set out by the exam boards), why not allow space and time for students to think for themselves. Why not allow them to find their own way to the answer and through that encourage a more independent, creative way of thinking.

Nobody’s perfect; creativity is needed in all subjects

Their solution and how they get there may be round-about with errors along the way; it may be left field, but if it makes sense to them, they will remember the solution. Not only that, they will learn and take confidence from the process. Surely, we should be encouraging people to give things a go, to make mistakes and  to learn from them. Spoiler alert – the world is not perfect after all and people aren’t either. Learning and accepting this early on will allow young people to flourish and thrive no matter what life throws at them. Far more so than being spoon fed ‘correct’ answers every time.

But in today’s educational system, it often feels like ‘boxes need to be ticked’ (such an awful phrase). Certain ‘ideas’ need to checked off, understood and explained in order for our children to pass tests and gain the best exam results. Again who does this really benefit? Does this prepare them for the world that awaits them? Surely, we can do better than this…..