When looking at the importance of creativity in the 21st century learner, it is important to look at where creativity fits in the educational spectrum and why it isn’t widely accepted. The current education system was created in the 19th century to meet the needs of the industrial economy. Schools provided children with the skills they needed to succeed, where they could easily find work out of high school and have job security. The most useful of these subjects found themselves at the top of the educational hierarchy (which is still prevalent today). In his TEDtalk Do Schools Kill Creativity? Sir Ken Robinson addresses the purpose of education asks what is public education for and who succeeds by this system? Looking at where we are today, public education has created a one-size fits all system that does not work with the 21st century learner, as the skills students gain today (the same ones from the late 19th century), are now obsolete.
Robinson argues that the purpose of education needs to be one that helps to shape the whole individual for an uncertain future and to give them the skills they need to service this unpredictability. Academic ability is no longer the only view of intelligence. According to Robinson creativity is just as important in education as literacy and should be treated with the same importance. He defines creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value. However, our current education system does little to foster imagination and creativity in students, skills necessary for the 21st century. Education has created a culture of compliance, instead of stimulating the power of imagination and creativity. Intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct and it is important for education to nurture these creative capacities in students instead of educating it out of them.
Hello Angela,
Thanks for this insightful entry. It had not occurred to me that our education system was catering to outdated needs. I find it interesting and shocking that this issue is not discussed more often in various settings. You are absolutely right that our teaching philosophy is also out of date. I think about how many times we tell our students that to have a “good job” they have to have advanced degrees. Is this really true? Do you think we should focus more on resourcefulness in our institutions?
Thanks,
Daniela (PME811)
Thank you for your post Angela. It is interesting to look at the historical roots of our education system. I wonder if our education system has not been built to adjust as quickly as the world around us or if we have just over corrected for the changes? I agree that creativity is an essential skill in the 21st century and that we could do more in our school system to foster creativity, but I also think there are aspects of the education system that we have lost over the years that have resulted in some disadvantages for our students. For example, home economics used to be a required class that taught skills like sewing and roasting a turkey. While we could argue that our society has evolved to not require a class to teach these skills as access to this information is readily available online, this type of class teaches self-reliance more importantly than the cooking or sewing skills themselves. I keep coming back to an Albert Einstein quote I’ve shared on my blog, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” If the focus of our education system was on training the mind to think, it would be more adaptable to various time periods. In that case the content is less relevant and the skills become the focus. Do you think that could work?