I just came across this TED talk from 2006 when a friend passed it along to me.  In the video, educator Ken Robinson discusses the importance of creativity and how modern day schooling is stifling it.  By no means am I against challenging our children academically.  I feel it’s important to push them to see what they’re capable of.  How we do it is really the question.  Focusing on things like mathematics and the sciences are no doubt important.  But how children interpret and analyze that information can be different.  The arts and their creative influences can go a long ways towards assisting and understanding how we learn different subjects.  Sometimes certain creative aspects help facilitate us to grasp how things work in different environments.  To think that there is one simple answer to education while just putting down our head and moving forward is rather naive.  We should be expanding ideas and influences while allowing for creative ventures.  I might be a bit preachy here, but I really feel the arts offer a lot for not just children, but adults as well.  We can always continue to learn.

My favorite quote comes at the 2:30 mark…

“My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”

Well said, Mr. Robinson.