Schools Are Hurting Our Kids!

I have recently become a fan of Sir Ken Robinson.  I was at a conference where he spoke and had one of those moments where you here someone speaking that you know what they are saying is profound and correct.  It will be one of those times when I look back and realize I had a paradigm shift in thinking.  As I have reached middle-age-hood, the more I realize that my perceptions and belief systems are in many cases the result of thoughts and circumstances that are not of my making.  There is nothing wrong with that per se, except now I seem to be reviewing many of those perceptions and deciding if they are indeed what I believe.  Ergo Sir Ken Robinson who points out that our educational system as we know it today, virtually around the globe, was put into place to serve the needs of the industrial revolution.  We heavily stress math and sciences above all else.  Art and creative subjects are relegated to second and third class status.  Up until recently I would have agreed with this "prioritization" of subjects.  Sir Robinson points out that there are many types of intelligence and each is significant and important.  We each learn differently and what is good for the goose isn't always good for the gander.  Where would the world be without Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley, Mick Fleetwood?  It was Einstein that said, "Imagination is more important that knowledge".  Imagination and creativity are knowledge.  And creativity is as needed and important as any other field of study.  We quite literally educate out of our kids the ability to be creative.  We want to punch out a robot that will get a good ACT score, become an engineer or doctor, these are good citizens.  I wonder what Jim Henderson's parents thought when he went up to them and said, "Mom, Dad, I want to be a puppeteer". 
If you would like to see Sir Ken Robinson speak on the death of creativity by the education system you can click this link.  He is engaging and very funny.  

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html