Monday, January 7, 2008

Modern education kills creativity

Sir Ken Robinson tells us how efforts to train children to respond predictably and protect them from experiencing the world causes an inhibition of their instinctual creativity. The modern approach to education is boring and badly misses the mark on its attempt to educate. In a misguided effort to be "progressive", the educational system has forgotten the basics that worked so well for centuries. It has fallen off track and fails to provide our youth with what is most important for their growth.

No wonder home schooling is increasingly popular. You can go much farther and it is interesting, with ideas alive and open to being explored. In contrast, modern educational systems tell students what to think and then test them on their ability to repeat dogma. This removes not only critical thinking skills but also creativity.

It just doesn't make sense to bore curious youth with subpar material of no interest. Give them something interesting and let them run with it. Intellect has natural structure and has done just fine for centuries. We don't need new age educators justifying their failed experimentations on our children. Let's go back to something that has a long history of working. Repeating failed experiments and expecting a different result is insanity.