Do schools kill creativity?

I must admit my mind was already leaning towards no when I began watching this video, however his talk was well researched and presented. The conclusion I arrived at after watching Sir Robinson's video was simply yes. Yes, schools do deplete creativity in kids, as well as plant seeds of bias in individuals.


I must admit that personally, the word art has often a negative connotation in my mind. Even though that many of my closest friends are artists, and my father an accomplished musician (go watch the band Slapwater, my dad plays the keyboards) I still have a negative internal tag attached to the word art. To elaborate, the epitome of my negative stereotype would be a beatnik sitting in Starbucks, on a Mac computer (I even loathe to capitalize the word Mac) writing poetry publicly. All of those aspects have a negative stereotype for me, particularly free verse poetry (which is basically talking with a fancy name). Now I must ask the question how I came to dislike the arts.

Gender wise, the concepts of dance and most particularly ballet and tap are introduced negatively (at least usually), shown as a female thing, or an activity for gay's. Honestly, if a straight man takes ballet, think of all the attractive women he gets to hang around. However I can firmly conclude that public school were not responsible for my lack of enthusiasm for dance.

Next for my mental discussion would be traditional art, painting, drawing and such. For me there is not so much negative thoughts attached with this (with the exception of abstract art) but my personal dislike of being wrong, to paraphrase Sir Robinson, has always held me back. I would rarely attempt physical art, and if I did it would be secret, or hidden, so my amateur attempts would not attract too much scorn. It is possible school was partly responsible for this, as well as society (though I hate to blame others for my own shortcomings, it is also mostly my fault for not perusing art). Instilling the value of being right, and attaching the negative stigma to being wrong possibly has held me back creatively.

Drama has some negative stigma attached to it in my mind, but mostly due to the individuals involved. In high school I was in drama class three out of the four years I was there, but usually acting behind the scenes, facilitating others, assisting them in the spotlight. I was in two school plays, “South Pacific” (2004 I believe) which I assisted back stage, and “Little Shop of Horrors” in 2005 which I was the puppeteer for three quarters of the puppets. The main reason for the activity in drama was fun and the camaraderie of a stellar bunch of people (though many are prone to excess drama in life, occupational hazard of enjoying drama). The only negative association with drama dealt with some individuals who were less than wonderful people.

Music has never had a negative feeling attached to it, probably due to my father playing for as far back as I can remember, and introducing me to different forms of music. He showed my how to enjoy music, and I watched as music made him feel elated. In my mind music is the highest form of art, the most valuable (though I cannot find a tangible reason for this) and the one I enjoy the most.

Lastly in the look inside my own cerebellum to see my prejudices, I come to creative writing. In my mind I don’t even see this as art, even though I know it should be. This is probably because I am at least decent at this, whereas any form of the others I fail to pass muster. Reading and to some extent writing, has always been enjoyable, ever since Cat in the Hat.

I believe that public schools do indeed squash creativity, the only method of artistic activity positively endorsed in a class considered “core” would be creative writing. However, since not everyone is good at different facets of artistry, it would be difficult to test everyone on drawing, or singing, so part of the focus away from the arts is understandable.

Sir Robinson mentioned the main reason for the crushing of creativity is based on the industrial revolution. That is when the public education really began, and the emphasis was on training people to become effective workers in that days work force. Present times however, it is much more likely to be able to make a living on being an artist, thus our school system is lacking in that area.

The only remaining question is now “What can be done” which is a lot harder than critiquing the system already in place. This question’s difficulty for me is amplified because of how ingrained I am in the very system I am being asked to change. Perhaps by implementing more after school programs, or doing more creative writing assignments.