#6 Part 2 - Creativity in our Schools

First of all, I like this guy.  His ideas resonated pretty quickly with me, considering I only finished watching the video a few seconds ago, but hey, what can you do?  Sir Ken Robinson is a man that I knew nothing about before today, although I have since heard several of his ideas from other people that he has apparently had an influence on.  And now I have to say that I agree with everything the man said, and in all honesty, that might be because of how much it meant to me on a personal level.

I'm going to try to avoid total sentimentality in this entry (which is another thing that people say when they're about to do the exact thing they don't want to do), but my background wasn't all that different from that of Gillian Lynne, the dancer and choreographer that he mentioned in his address.  I never paid attention when I was younger, always doodling or making something up on the page where my notes should have been.  That's just who I was back then.  I know, that's not exactly unusual.  But, there was a point where all that changed.  I was lucky, and wound up in a high school where you were encouraged to follow up on areas of study that made you happy.  For me that was creative writing.  Whether it was poetry, short stories, song-writing, or whatever, it made no difference to me, it was something that I got great joy out of and developed a pretty good knack for.  I exhausted every creative writing class the school had to offer, and when there weren't any left to take I even tried my hand at journalism and composition just for the chance to create, and use my talent.

When I say that I was lucky, I mean it whole-heartedly.  I owe my entire identity to the teachers like Mr. Cahn, Ms. Milch, Mr. Niccolletti, Mrs. Franzino and others who helped me to find myself within my art.  And this didn't just help me in those classes, this made me a better student in general.  I wasn't a model pupil coming into high school, or even at the beginning of high school (or even now really).  I would just do what I could to get by, feeling too intimidated by certain subjects to think that I could do any better.  But after I discovered my talent, I became confident.  All the fear I felt from those other classes disappeared.  I mean think, about it, an essay?  I was writing songs, sonnets and sestinas in my spare time, essays seemed simple, basic, not scary.  Imagine what a great a feeling that is for a student.

It's amazing what a person can come up with once fear isn't hanging over their heads.  I know that every student deserves that relief, that weight that lifts off of your shoulders when you have confidence in yourself.  I'm not saying that it's the answer to everything, but I know it helps.  So yes, I certainly agree with Sir. Ken Robinson that creativity must be held in the highest regards in our schools.