Is There Room for Creativity in Our Schools?

In the video Do Schools Kill Creativity? Sir Ken Robinson presents some interesting viewpoints regarding creativity in education. Some points that I found interesting were when he made the remark that the foundation of our education system was the industrial revolution and what skills were required for the job market. Math was ranked one of the highest skills, which is why it is taught every day in school, while other realms of education such as drama, dance, and art are ranked amongst the lowest. In my opinion, creativity is an important part of education, equal to math. What educators must understand, and what Ken Robinson pointed out in his presentation, is that people have different skills and different methods of learning. Some people excel in math while others excel in dance. In my high school creative writing, theater, and art were taken as electives while math was a required subject. In all four years of high school I never excelled in math as I did in creative writing, but I was taught that math was more valid in the real world. Today, I hardly remember or use the math skills that I learned in high school, while I use my writing skills frequently. Furthermore, the state of our economy proves that skills in the arts are less valuable because they are classes that will be cut. The economy raises the question, can we afford to be creative?

As an English teacher I know I know I will make an effort to support creativity in my classroom and I hope that the education system will see the positive effects of creativity as well.