Creativity in School

I agree with what Sir Ken Robinson had said in his video at the TED conference that we had watched in class today.  I believe that there is not enough push towards using the students imagination/creative-side in class while learning.  It is all geared to the academics and intelligence. It stifles the child and like he said, children soon to be less creative because they are afraid to make mistakes, which leads to the mindset that making a mistake is wrong.  Well no, it's not completely wrong.  There is still learning from our mistakes; we take in what we did wrong and will learn from it.  Mistakes should not be the bane of our existence because, essentially, we can take something out of it. 


I thought it was interesting when Robinson brought up that there are more students graduating now then there ever was in history, which in turn is leading to this academic inflation.  That is SO true.  I know even when my folks were younger and finding jobs, they didn't need the academics.  My dad use to work in the a garage in Byemoor, AB (small rural town 1 hr south of Stettler) where he worked on vehicles and some farm equipment.  Neither my dad nor my grandpa (who owned the garage), had their tickets but they still worked on the vehicles.  They learned by doing.  Now in today's day and age, you need that ticket saying you are a mechanic to work in a garage like that.  Just knowing how things work and fixing vehicles doesn't cut it any more.  You need the education.  It just seems like now you have to have a diploma, journeyman, Ph. D., etc to do anything.  I find that a bit frustrating sometimes.  It kind of shows that the only way to have the best life as possible is to have the above examples.  The arts is indeed, the lower part of the hierarchy of education and it looked down upon.  If someone is a musician, others look down at them and say the musician will never make anything of themselves.  It's pretty sad though to think that.  Yes, it's a hard industry to get into, but when they break through, it is worth all the blood, sweat, and tears they had gone through.  The artists are the people who make us appreciate what we have to enjoy in life (paintings, musics, books, etc.), so they should be looked upon just like professionals too.