One of my favorite TED Talks belongs to Sir Ken Robinson titled, "How schools kill creativity." I've watched it a number of times and every time I pick out something new from it. One of my favorite points Sir Robinson brings up, is that children aren't afraid to fail. Their willingness to be wrong enables them to really express their creativity. He shared a story about a little girl drawing God –
…a little girl was in a drawing lesson. She was six and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly ever paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, "What are you drawing?" And the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." And the girl said, "They will in a minute."
Can you imagine all that we could create with that kind of confidence in our own imaginations? The child's mind is so full of ideas and novelties that we, as adults, might miss. Children see the world through a different lens than we do. They have different needs and wants. They see things from a completely new perspective - or a very old one, that we've simply forgotten about when we were too busy growing up.
Sir Robinson continues on to criticize the world's view on a "valuable" education. That we as a society de-emphasize art and creativity and push every child to learn math and language arts. Not to say that those things aren't also important, but I think he's trying to say that while kids are young and creative, we should be measuring them on their ability to think rather than the ability to write or learn facts and numbers.
Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads. And slightly to one side.
I'm eager to see the next generation of thinkers and makers. My hope is that society finds the value in a child's education and doesn't steer them away from their passion for practicalities.
