Educating the Whole Child: Where Have the Arts Gone
Sir Ken Robinson, Professor Emeritus, author, educator, and public speaker advising on the importance of the Arts in schools to foster creativity in children, was videotaped at a TED conference where he asked the question, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” The overall message is that the creative spark is being educated out of our children in public schools. Robinson states, “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. (Robinson 2:56)
Young children are not afraid try new things, often have ideas which we adults squash, and our educational system is geared away from kindling that spark of the creative gene. According to Robinson, “We stigmatize …show more content…
If one looks at the classes I was required to take: dance, etiquette, music, sewing, basic cooking, home & family, as well as English, foreign language, math, and science, then compare it to what my own children experienced: math, English, foreign language, science, technology, education can be seen to have changed greatly. They were afforded the luxury of taking art, band, or choir as an elective; dance was an extracurricular and etiquette was unheard of. Now I witness the classes my grandchildren are encountering: math, geometry, foreign language, information technology, politics, science, and history – all as elementary age children. What they are taught is based upon a standardized test which determines the funding schools are …show more content…
Budgets became tighter; in order to obtain government funding, students had to do well on the tests. Consequently, educators spent more time teaching the tests, and less time cultivating critical thinking skills. Ron Beghetto, Professor of Education Psychology, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, maintains, “The current focus on testing in schools, and the idea there is only one right answer to a question, may be hampering development of creativity among kids. There’s not much room for unexpected, novel, divergent thought.” (Live Science 2011)
In essence, we are creating a generation of automatons, those who can recite by rote, but lack the ability to create new and interesting ideas. Kyung-Hee Kim, William & Mary University found, “though America’s IQ scores are on the rise, the country’s scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking have been declining since 1990.” (Zagursky) Her studies show this is greatly pronounced in young
Sir Ken Robinson, Professor Emeritus, author, educator, and public speaker advising on the importance of the Arts in schools to foster creativity in children, was videotaped at a TED conference where he asked the question, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” The overall message is that the creative spark is being educated out of our children in public schools. Robinson states, “Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status. (Robinson 2:56)
Young children are not afraid try new things, often have ideas which we adults squash, and our educational system is geared away from kindling that spark of the creative gene. According to Robinson, “We stigmatize …show more content…
If one looks at the classes I was required to take: dance, etiquette, music, sewing, basic cooking, home & family, as well as English, foreign language, math, and science, then compare it to what my own children experienced: math, English, foreign language, science, technology, education can be seen to have changed greatly. They were afforded the luxury of taking art, band, or choir as an elective; dance was an extracurricular and etiquette was unheard of. Now I witness the classes my grandchildren are encountering: math, geometry, foreign language, information technology, politics, science, and history – all as elementary age children. What they are taught is based upon a standardized test which determines the funding schools are …show more content…
Budgets became tighter; in order to obtain government funding, students had to do well on the tests. Consequently, educators spent more time teaching the tests, and less time cultivating critical thinking skills. Ron Beghetto, Professor of Education Psychology, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, maintains, “The current focus on testing in schools, and the idea there is only one right answer to a question, may be hampering development of creativity among kids. There’s not much room for unexpected, novel, divergent thought.” (Live Science 2011)
In essence, we are creating a generation of automatons, those who can recite by rote, but lack the ability to create new and interesting ideas. Kyung-Hee Kim, William & Mary University found, “though America’s IQ scores are on the rise, the country’s scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking have been declining since 1990.” (Zagursky) Her studies show this is greatly pronounced in young