Elaine+S’s+2017+OpEd+Article

When someone says the word creativity, w hat comes to your mind? Do you think of painters such as Picasso or Van Gogh streaking paint across a canvas, creating a masterpiece? Do you think of brilliant minds such as Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg inventing the newest and greatest technologies? Do you think of musicians such as Mozart or John Lennon carefully crafting notes to create melodies that stay with the generations? The connotations associated with creativity and art are so wonderful and positive, so the question is, why do we not immerse children in the arts?

The public education system was created in the 19th century during the time of industrialization. The reason why children were educated during this time period was to allow them the opportunity to become successful. They were trained for occupations such as factory owners, lawyers, or bankers. Therefore, the subjects needed in these fields were directly reflected in the school systems. Parents, teachers and society steered children away from pursuing careers in the arts since there was no way of making a living in those fields. The times have changed, but the school systems have not.

There is a prominent hierarchy of subjects in school systems across the globe. France,Japan, Germany, China, the USA and many more all have math and science as the primary focus, and a seco ndary focus on the humanities (social studies, history etc.). The arts cannot even compete with the time, materials, and funding that the rest of the “big ticket” subjects get. This is simply not right. Why do we force millions of students to sit through math class after math class for twelve years of their life without making them go through the same rigorous training in the arts? The school education system in America, and through most parts of the world, consider mistakes to be dreadful and appalling for the whole goal of the education is to pass tests with the most correct answers; who ever makes the least mistakes “wins”. Making mistakes are crucial to human development, and the school system is demonizing errors from a very young age. As Ken Robinson said in his TED talk from 2006, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original”. This is a dire situation for children are conditioned to make fewer and fewer mistakes, and when they do make an error they are penalized for it. Children are born with the ability to make mistakes and not feel a sense of demoralization or humiliation, they simply learn and move on. The reason why adults feel such strong emotions for getting something wrong is because they have made their way through the school system and society has conditioned them. As Pablo Picasso said, “All children are born artists, the problem is staying an artist as you grow up”. The arts are a place where mistakes are welcome, a place when children can explore and learn from their miscalculations and still feel safe. It is only logical that the arts become more prominent in the education system, but they still are not.

Every person has a unique mind, that is what makes huma ns so different from one another. This also means that there is a diversity of intelligence. There are so many types of brilliant people; Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton in the math and sciences, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. in social reform, Richard Avedon and Stanley Kubrick in photography and film. All of these intelligent minds have challenged and shaped the world, and each type of brilliance is needed to create a fully functioning society. The school system is lacking in this way; it is only geared for on e or two types of minds and leaves the rest in the dust. Gillian Lynne was one of these children. Lynne is a world renowned dancer and choreographer who has choreographed famous broadway shows such as //Cats// and //Phantom of the Opera//. When she was in school, she was always fidgeting and never could concentrate. She was punished for this and she did not do well in her classes. She was sent to a therapist, and her t herapist put on music and observed what she did. She got up and started dancing. The therapist told her mother to enroll her in a dance class, and that is where she shined. Lynne said that in order to think she had to move. In the modern day she would most likely have been diagnosed with ADHD, and given drugs to suppress her natural learning style since was not considered one of the “educatable” students of the school system. There have been over 6.4 million children diagnosed with ADHD since 2011. Think of how many of those children could be just like Gillian Lynne.

The current education system is leaving so many intelligent people being left feeling simple minded or unintelligent because they do not fit into what schools label as “smart”. It is time for this to change, it is time for creativity and art to be rooted in the education of the future generations.