Creative Education

"We now need to be equally radical in how we think of education. Raising academic standards alone will not solve the problems we face: it may compound them. To move forward we need fresh understanding of intelligence, of ability, and of the nature of creativity.”
Sir Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative

Without fail, the word "creative" or "creativity" comes up in every conversation I've ever heard or been apart of addressing the problems facing education in our country today. From the top executives at Apple to the kindergarten teacher preparing a lesson on basic addition, we all talk about how much we need to be "creative" in education but so often, it seems, we don't really understand what the word means.

What is "creativity"?

Sir Ken Robinson certainly has some brilliant insights into what the word "creativity" might actually mean as it pertains to education. When I read the short excerpt that I included above, four words seemed to highlight themselves above the rest -

Radical. Intelligence. Ability. Nature.

What is creativity?

Radical

Creativity is radical in the fact that creativity does not cower to failure. I've been in education for three years now and I've learned that teaching is a strange and precarious profession in the state of Texas. Your livelihood and your school's existence is determined by and at the mercy of an all-powerful state assessment that is built by and implemented by people who have long since lost or never had a grasp of the classroom experience. Educators are operating in a dated system that is assessed and modified by politicians. The disconnect is baffling.

However, failure to meet the standard of this system is unacceptable. Failure to meet the standard for a teacher, and for a school, means certain death. As a result, we cower to failure and stick to the same old safe, comfortable, convenient strategies and methods of teaching because exploring new ideas seems far too great of a risk. We become afraid to fail as teachers and that paralyzing pressure is often transferred to our students.

A bird will never realize it has wings and a whole sky to fly in if it never gets the courage to break out of its own shell.

We need an education system with the courage to be radical. We need creativity in education that will not cower to failure. We need education to realize it has wings and a whole sky to fly in.

Intelligence

Sir Ken Robinson calls for a "fresh understanding" of intelligence and I couldn't agree with him more. However, in educational system we've created, it's almost impossible to escape the concept of intelligence as a good test score. According to this model, intelligence is offered to the passing score and denied to the failing score. Tragically, failing a test often shatters the confidence and the courage of a student and a teacher.

Creativity in education must understand intelligence according to individual strengths and weaknesses. A creative education supports and allows teachers to teach according to their individual strengths and passions. A teacher who teaches according to their individual strength and passion teaches with authenticity and that authenticity is not encumbered or compromised by a standard or curriculum that is not true to who they are.

As students, we all gravitated to authentic teachers. The authentic teachers were the great teachers because they knew their strengths and passions and helped us to see our own.

They were the teachers who gave us confidence and courage to move forward even if we did fail a test. The great teachers showed us we had wings to fly with because they used theirs.

Ability

The understanding of ability in education seems devastatingly narrow. The combination of standardized testing and set curriculum requirements can often disenchant students and teachers who don't or fail to "fit in" to the system. Ability is then defined by performance within very small and limited confines. As a result, the radical student or the radical teacher whose abilities lay outside of those confines are abandoned without a place or home in education.

Creativity in education must broaden its understanding of ability by allowing time and space for new or different abilities to be realized and exercised in the classroom. This broader understanding of ability has to start with the teacher. Once a teacher is offered the time and space to realize and exercise their individual ability as educators, they can offer the same time and space for their student to realize and exercise their own ability as learners.

Nature

Nature is the foundation of creativity. Creativity is our nature. As human beings, we are not isolated. We do not exist in a vacuum. We are born into a world of people, places, sounds, and smells. We live in a world with people who lived before us and will live after us. We live with each other from day we're born to the day we die and together we spend our entire lives learning and creating ways to do just that - live.

It is our nature to create. We are all born with unique intelligences and abilities that help to mold and create our nature, ourselves. Creativity in education embraces the unique intelligence and ability of the individual and allows the time and space for both to be adapted and contributed to the world we live in and the people we live with.

We cannot remain stuck in this shell. We have the intelligence and ability to creatively break free. Education has wings and a whole sky to fly in.


Cheers!
Josh
FourTeachers Project

*Author's note - Maybe creativity is radical intelligence with the ability to be natural?