Bringing Creativity Into The Classroom Is Essential

By

As children we have all been told to follow instruction. Stand up, sit down, fold your hands in your lap, speak when spoken to, etc. We have squandered the internal ability of a child to innovate.

What are the first subjects that are discontinued in schools if test scores are low? It is the arts that has propelled humanity into who we are today. Yet it is the arts that are the first subjects placed on the cutting board and cut out of the system as if it is beneath math and science. When at the same time it is movement and creativity that compliment fundamental subjects we all are required to learn.

As a former teacher, I had the privilege of experiencing how different children learn. What was interesting was some children learned better standing than sitting. Children, required to sit and read books, would fumble through words with difficulty and frustration. The moment they stood to their feet and paced they found the rhythm in the sentences. It was fascinating.

I required my students to take dance classes twice a week, and an incredible phenomenon happened: Their scores began to increase.

Which makes me wonder…what if our middle schools, and even high schools implemented movement and brainstorming creative ideas with the students to capitalize on maintaining information that sticks. We could produce an entire generation that not only makes better test scores, but learns creatively and holds information for a longer, thus a lasting benefit to society.

Creativity compliments education the same way education should compliment creativity.

In the words of Sir Ken Robinson, “imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And its the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.”

This is the revolution of education.

We owe it to ourselves and the future of creativity that assures growth in humanity and the future of innovation itself. We need to break the line that separates creativity and education. They are one in the same. Creativity compliments education the same way education should compliment creativity.

It is up to the few that will change the world through tying these important basic human expressions together.