Creativity In Education: A Dying Art

CREATIVITY IN EDUCATION – A DYING ART?

Creativity is suffering from neglect. Its potential is not being recognised, nurtured or encouraged.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain shifted our national priorities: we recognised the need for a new kind of intelligence in line with the nation’s economic needs. This was the start of mass education and the introduction of “core” subjects. These subjects were maths and science, in order to comprehend this burgeoning technology, and languages, to flog them to the rest of the world. A sensible move: standardise the national curriculum to meet the economic demands of the country and produce a generation of skilled individuals capable of existing in a post-industrialist age.

This was 200 years ago.

Now those “core” subjects have not changed. We are told that maths, science and languages are the foundations of intelligence, the seed of success from which all future genii will flower. It is extraordinary to see how far we have come and yet how little we have grown.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Government’s asinine introduction of the EBacc. This will require students to be graded in English, a language, maths, science and history or geography with no provision for creative subjects. The uptake of creative subjects at GCSE is dropping at an alarming rate. Schools, particularly in the State sector, are having to justify the existence of any creative departments when there is a shortage of funds, teachers, resources and then - to add insult to injury – no rewarding of those subjects at Key Stage 4.

Now I am not saying that those “core” subjects are not important. But the danger here is that we validate a false hierarchy of subjects where the creative arts sit right at the bottom of a ladder. And the sad reality is that climbing that ladder, these days, is solely to get to university. So when academic ability has come to define intelligence, we are left with a whole swathe of creatively intelligent people who don’t fit in to the normative mould and who think they are not intelligent because “the thing they were good at at school was either not rewarded or actively stigmatised” (Sir Ken Robinson).

Not only does the EBacc uphold this idea –thereby depriving young people of the many benefits and joys (which, let’s be clear, are not mutually exclusive!) of a creative education – but also it is one of the most economically senseless proposals imaginable.

Here come some facts and figures:

1. The World Economic Forum in Davos published that the top skills required in business are creativity, collaboration and creative thinking.

2. The fastest growing industry is the creative industry: a £92billion sector growing at twice the rate of the economy.

3. 80% of Google staff studied Arts and Humanities degrees.

4. The creative industries boast faster job growth and slower job loss than other sectors of the economy.

This shows just how short-sighted we are about the economic potential of creativity: bearing in mind this is one area that can never be countered by AI. No computer could paint the Sistene chapel, act like Dame Judi Dench or create world-class advertising campaigns.

Furthermore, this idea that intelligence is rooted in the so-called “core” subjects is farcical. There is wide debate about the number of intelligences – in some cultures there are considered to be as many as 16 – but one example given by Karen Blackett OBE, UK County Manager at WPP, is that Emotional Intelligence is worth 7 times more than IQ. In her industry, academic qualifications and craft or technical skills amount to little compared to empathy with a target market and understanding of their needs and how to meet them.

It is no utopic vision to imagine a world in which our education system offers proper understanding of the breadth of intelligences there are and rewards them accordingly. In the school I work at, I often hear students say: “I couldn’t possibly take Theatre Studies A Level, it’s much too fun.”

My heart and mouth drop.

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We all have to take responsibility for this: from the government, to schools, to parents, fellow teachers and students. If we marginalise the creative subjects, students will miss out on the most diverse, eclectic and not to mention crucial education we have to offer. The encouragement of young people to follow their passions is not just for individual benefit, it is also a commercial and economic imperative.

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Our students and our future deserve better.