1. Does Education Kill Creativity?

A study conducted by Professor George Land has shown that creativity declines, as we get older (Markides, 2013). Land tested a group of 3-5 year olds divergent thinking skills (a prerequisite to creativity). Nighty-eight percent scored "genius in creativity". The same children were tested 5 years later and the number fell to thirty-two percent. The study was conducted again five years later when the participants were teenagers, and only twelve percent were rated geniuses in creativity. The test was also conducted on a group of adults (25+), only two percent received a "genius" rating. Sir Ken Robinson (TED Talks, 2007) believes that schools and mainstream education are the main cause for this.

Schools are designed to educate and inspire children. However, in an interview with Strauss (2014) Ron Maggiano, a veteran teacher (who won the Disney Teacher Award for innovation and creativity in 2005) argues "We are not really educating our students anymore. We are merely teaching them to pass a test. This is wrong.". Ron Believes that standardised testing is stifling creativity and imagination in the classroom. Teachers are unable to provide students with opportunities to create and be imaginative outside of the heavily exam based curriculums. Another issue is that it ignores the needs, interests and abilities of the individual students. For example, those who are less academic but highly talented in creative subjects are consequently branded as 'less intelligent'. This approach has inevitably lead to creative subjects being stigmatised.

Sir Ken Robinson, supports this idea (TED Talks, 2007) believing that there is a hierarchy within the subjects taught in schools. With maths, sciences and languages at the top, and creative subjects such as art, drama and music falling at the lower end. Robinson (2007) argues that these education models were originally designed to support industrialisation.

In today's society the norm is to go to school, get an education, get a job and work. However, the issue with this is that half of the nations employed people are unhappy, and admit they would rather have a different career (Burn-Callander, 2015). The pressure that the most important thing in life is to find a 'well paid job' and society's need to conform to this routine, is discouraging creativity. Resulting in less and less people taking risks and following their dreams.

Todays education model supports this ideal by promoting the idea that if you study one of these 'top' subjects, you will have a better chance at getting a job. The reality of the situation is that getting a job is hard no matter what you study. In most cases academic qualifications come in second to employers. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association (Kuther PhD, 2013) found that employers favor those who are creative, innovative and able to 'think outside of the box'.

If this is the case and schools are in fact killing creativity, the education system needs a serious reform. We live in a world, which is constantly changing with new concepts, ideas and technology. We need creativity and creative people in order to innovate and evolve. Creativity and innovation go hand in hand, without the production of new ideas we cannot move forward and achieve our full potential.

References

Alfonso-Benlliure, V, & Santos, M 2016, 'Creativity development trajectories in Elementary Education: Differences in divergent and evaluative skills', Thinking Skills And Creativity, 19, pp. 160-174, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 10 Feb 2016.
Burn-Callander, R. (2015). It's official: most people are miserable at work. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/11871751/Its-official-most-people-are-miserable-at-work.html [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].
Kuther PhD, T. (2013). What employers seek in job applicants: You’ve got the skills they want. [online] http://www.apa.org. Available at: http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psn/2013/09/job-applicants.aspx [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].
Markides, C 2013, 'DO SCHOOLS KILL CREATIVITY?', Business Strategy Review, 24, 4, p. 6, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 10 February 2016.
Price, K, & Tinker, A 2014, 'Review: Creativity in later life', Maturitas, 78, pp. 281-286, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 10 Feb 2016.
TED Talks, (2007). Do Schools Kill Creativity?. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].
Simon, A, & Bock, O 2016, 'Influence of divergent and convergent thinking on visuomotor adaptation in young and older adults', Human Movement Science, 46, pp. 23-29, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, viewed 10 Feb 2016.
Strauss, V. (2014). 11 problems created by the standardized testing obsession. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/22/11-problems-created-by-the-standardized-testing-obsession/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].