In Ken Robinson’s “How Schools Kill Creativity”, Robinson explains that schools are squandering the natural talents of children by stigmatizing mistakes, creating a hierarchy of subjects, and discouraging natural ability. One thing that children have that they lose through education as they get older is that they aren't afraid of being wrong. But, throughout education people have stigmatized mistakes and have made it downright horrible to ever mess up. This kills creativity because people never come up with new ideas just because of the chance they might fail. The hierarchy of subjects taught in schools have also had a detrimental effect on creativity due to the belief that subjects such as mathematics and languages are far more important and relevant than the arts. Children are taught more how to remember and repeat mathematical equations and rules of writing than they are how to express themselves and think outside the box. The arts aren't as highly valued as other subjects, and because of this, the natural creative ability that would flourish and grow in music and art courses is crushed. Natural abilities are disregarded and educated out of children to fit them into a common mold that has been in use since the beginning of the 1900's. According to Robinson, the only hope for the future is to rethink the principles and values on which education is based and adjust them to teach children for a future in which they must thrive on their own.
Ken Robinson’s “How School Kills Creativity” intrigued me when it brought up the issue of children today being diagnosed with learning disorders or illnesses that were just commonplace things 50 years ago and not seen as abnormal. 50 years ago kids that had trouble paying attention in class or fidgeted a lot were just unruly and daydreamers. Today they are diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication to make them calm down and “behave”. In fact, the number of children throughout the years that have been diagnosed has increased rapidly, from 7.8% in 2003, to 9.5% in 2007, and to 11% (6.4 million) in 2011. These kids are medicated so that they can act and think “normally”, or rather, normal as defined by society. But what if that Abnormal kid hadn't been put on medication? What could they have created if their abilities and creativity had been encouraged? The daydreamers could have thought up the most amazing ideas that we will now never know. The hyperactive kids could have put their energy to good use, like Gillian Lynne used hers to become an amazing dancer and influence dance as we know it today. I think that we as a society should stop giving children medication that hinders their natural abilities and weighing them down with the labels like ADHD. Those kids will now believe that there is something wrong with them that needs to be fixed so that they will be acceptable and will think that they are unable to do certain tasks based off of what some doctor says. Who ever wants to be told that they are not good enough?
