Creativity and the classroom is a topic that falls very near and dear to my heart. This might be apparent as I have proclaimed myself both an artist and educator. It is my goal in life to maintain both sides of myself. The two sides work together, not against each other. If I were to stop creating art I would lose not only a piece of myself but a valuable tool in educating. This involvement in the creative world makes me a better teacher. Allowing my creative juices to flow and engaging with other artists on both a local and global scale makes me a better artist and a more knowledgeable and creative teacher.
When I saw Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk posted as a topic of discussion I was delighted. I have read his book and his theories deeply resonate with me. I thought I should re-watch his talk so that I could be reminded of some of his thoughts and ideas. However a few minutes in I decided that I'd really rather not. Instead I decided to watch RSA's doodle of one of his talks which I knew would keep me engaged.
Eventually I did go back to the original talk but with frequent pauses and many new tabs opened up in my browser. I looked up a divergent thinking test. I took a few of them. I checked on the exact phrasing of a Picasso quote that he said. I checked Buzzfeed. And from there... Oh dear. I watched a Beyonce and Jay-Z perform at the Grammy's. Once on the music track I clicked onto a Lady Gaga video, didn't like it, moved on to P!nk. Then I remembered what it was I had originally been doing and returned to finish watching the TED Talk. And I don't have ADHD. No, really, I don't.
It's just that I'm an artist. I don't think in straight lines and I don't think many people do. I'm conceptual. Unlike the professors Ken spoke of ("Professors live in their heads, they are disembodied in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a kind of transport for their heads") I live in both my head and my hands. My imagination is boundless. I have always loved to read and this has developed my imagination in ways I can't even fathom. The places I've visited, the characters I've met have all added to the richness that is my visual world. However that's not where it ends for me. My head, my imagination is only the beginning. Where I really become all that I can be is when my head and hands join together. Just give me a block of wood and some chisels or a canvas and some paints that's when you'll see my intelligence come out.
So many students are just like me. They need to work through the problem for themselves and the more physical it is, the better. The education system of today is geared at those who can read and retain their textbook or listen to the teacher and repeat back what they said. We need to realize that there is so much more to intelligence than that. The idea of "traditional intelligence" needs to be put to rest. It's our job as educators to grow and develop students in a wide variety of ways. Yes, that seems difficult, but it's necessary. Perhaps Ken Robinson put it best when he said, "We cannot educate students for the future by doing what we did in the past."
The future is the great unknown. However one thing is certain. Creativity is going to be increasingly important. Children are capable of so much. As educators we need to capitalize on this, investing in them and their varied intelligences. We need to begin by "seeing our creative capacities for the richness that they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being so that they can face this future." ~ Sir Ken Robinson
When I saw Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk posted as a topic of discussion I was delighted. I have read his book and his theories deeply resonate with me. I thought I should re-watch his talk so that I could be reminded of some of his thoughts and ideas. However a few minutes in I decided that I'd really rather not. Instead I decided to watch RSA's doodle of one of his talks which I knew would keep me engaged.
Eventually I did go back to the original talk but with frequent pauses and many new tabs opened up in my browser. I looked up a divergent thinking test. I took a few of them. I checked on the exact phrasing of a Picasso quote that he said. I checked Buzzfeed. And from there... Oh dear. I watched a Beyonce and Jay-Z perform at the Grammy's. Once on the music track I clicked onto a Lady Gaga video, didn't like it, moved on to P!nk. Then I remembered what it was I had originally been doing and returned to finish watching the TED Talk. And I don't have ADHD. No, really, I don't.
It's just that I'm an artist. I don't think in straight lines and I don't think many people do. I'm conceptual. Unlike the professors Ken spoke of ("Professors live in their heads, they are disembodied in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a kind of transport for their heads") I live in both my head and my hands. My imagination is boundless. I have always loved to read and this has developed my imagination in ways I can't even fathom. The places I've visited, the characters I've met have all added to the richness that is my visual world. However that's not where it ends for me. My head, my imagination is only the beginning. Where I really become all that I can be is when my head and hands join together. Just give me a block of wood and some chisels or a canvas and some paints that's when you'll see my intelligence come out.
So many students are just like me. They need to work through the problem for themselves and the more physical it is, the better. The education system of today is geared at those who can read and retain their textbook or listen to the teacher and repeat back what they said. We need to realize that there is so much more to intelligence than that. The idea of "traditional intelligence" needs to be put to rest. It's our job as educators to grow and develop students in a wide variety of ways. Yes, that seems difficult, but it's necessary. Perhaps Ken Robinson put it best when he said, "We cannot educate students for the future by doing what we did in the past."
The future is the great unknown. However one thing is certain. Creativity is going to be increasingly important. Children are capable of so much. As educators we need to capitalize on this, investing in them and their varied intelligences. We need to begin by "seeing our creative capacities for the richness that they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being so that they can face this future." ~ Sir Ken Robinson