Creativity in and of Education

This has been on my mind lately. One because I’m nearing the end of gradschool and second I’ve been trying to find what I’m really good at. I’ve started to write about pop-culture and entertainment more because that’s kinda what I know.  Not the obscure world of entertainment but what we all kinda watch. People have asked me who my favorite musicians are and I always say who ever is on the top 40.  I’m still trying to expand that so we’ll see how that goes.

When I was in school I wasn’t good at math (I still can’t make change), english (grammar) was sub par and I never felt in the right place. I wish I had believed that you could make a living creating stuff. Just making stuff up. I have a lot a friends that I would say are in the same boat and some that are the best of both worlds.  My friends know who I’m talking about. But are our talents worth anything in this society. I’m glad I work at a place where its pretty high on the priority list.  That brings me to what you will see on this nice Sunday morning.  TED is a pretty cool conference or at least has some visionary speakers that make it worth poking around their site. Meet Ken Robinson. He is talking to me. I hope that I can see what are in my children before the world tells them its a hobby.

(excerpt from TED bio)
Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.
Why you should listen to him:

Why don’t we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies — far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity — are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. It’s a message with deep resonance. Robinson’s TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? “Everyone should watch this.”

A visionary cultural leader, Sir Ken led the British government’s 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. His latest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, a deep look at human creativity and education, was published in January 2009.

“Ken’s vision and expertise is sought by public and commercial organizations throughout the world.”