Creative Schooling – Part 2

“When learning is purposeful, creativity blossoms. When creativity blossoms, thinking emanates. When thinking emanates, knowledge is fully lit. When knowledge is lit, economy flourishes. “

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Principle of Linearity in Education:

As the pioneer of creative education Sir Ken Robinson puts it, “Principle of Linearity sees education as a preparation for something that happens later on in life”. He also calls it the gas tank model, where you are filled up with an initial supply of education, which should see you through for the rest of your life or career.

The industrial revolution brought a global transition in the human economy; because even though the earlier agrarian economy helped us flourish as a community, the unprecedented demand for more resources that arose from phenomenal growth in the human population, required much more mechanized technology that would increase output.

The advent of industrialization improved the average income of families; which encouraged more parents to gravitate to institutions that would qualify their kids for such jobs. This is how the principle of linearity took shape in Education.

“Civilization is a race between Education and Catastrophe” – Novelist HG Wells.

Banking on this principle, the education industry is driven to get more and more people who
are academically qualified.

As discussed above, the major attraction of these academically qualified where the guaranteed standard set of jobs available in the market. As breadwinning was the priority then, we made this a standard confirmed system as a natural order of life, overlooking the creativity & talents in children. But as the population rose and because of the increase in the number of qualified professionals, we are again driving ourselves back to another catastrophe; a community filled with a huge lot of highly qualified professionals with the capability to tackle old problems and ignorant how to deal with the new ones.

Education is not just about preparing for what comes in future, it’s also about the experiences these children are put through today. Equally important is to guide these kids to acquire the necessary or right skills to express their talents better. More clarity of their inner strengths will allow them to engage more creatively and confidently with whatever opportunities they come across.

So, until our schools figure out ways to factor in the learning orientation of each individual child and accordingly instill & promote imagination, creativity and innovation in them; we are not educating our kids rightly; or understanding the needs of the twenty-first century.

Academic Ability:

The word academic is often used by the masses, as a synonym for intellect or intelligence; which it is not. Academic work primarily focuses on linguistic, hyperlexic and writing skills along with verbal & mathematical reasoning ability. Thus, the learning mode focuses more on the reflective observation ability of the child, rather than the skill to actively experiment with possibilities. Of course, these are very important abilities our education system should promote, but limiting ourselves to this alone means we are not going to prosper as human beings. We are missing out on a major part of the human intelligence that created our culture, dance forms, music, art, poetry, technology and many other inventions that transformed and evolved human life.

We can’t ask musicians to express their musical ideas in words and formulas; the same is the case with a painter. The beauty of their ideas lies in the way they think and express. Creative schooling involves that process whereby the child along with academics also learns ways to express their innate skills through various mediums; which is basically what we call acquired skills.

So, intelligence is the ability of any being, to first put together diverse information and then express; it in unique and coherent ways. Any kid who is exceptionally good and manifests diverse forms of intelligence beyond academics should also be celebrated; as they used the time in school wisely to equip themselves with those skills necessary for personal growth and transformation too.

Power of Symbolic Representation:

If we go by the studies of cognitive development in children, a child begins to develop the capacity to internalize actions by converting them to representable images during (2-6 years) of age. A child uses visual memory to store concrete and specific experiences as their memory during this period. This growth is followed by the next
milestone of cognitive development, which is the power of abstract symbolic representation; and is expected to be between 7-11 years. During this stage, the child uses concepts, theories, and relations to give shapes to their experiences. Systematic symbols for words and numbers and schematic symbols for paintings, music, dance etc.; where visual images create a pattern of ideas.

In our understanding, this is the natural stage where a child learns intricate forms of thoughts /communication and starts framing ideas and feelings about the world. This is the stage we see kids transforming their feelings into artistic expressions, through whatever mediums they have control. This is the stage where a child puts their imagination to work and we notice their creative energy is unleashed.

Creativity is an ability one attains, to use their true potential:

Creativity for ages has been associated with artistic skills alone; on the contrary, the principle of creative schooling looks at creative energy flow; as a process that acts on ideas, through successive iterations; which may also include connecting thoughts across disciplines (Bi-Association) in the most unexpected ways; to come up with new possibilities that has value.

Studies say, that a baby nerve cell has over 10 to 20 times more connection with other nerve cells compared to adults. As we grow, these synaptic connections get pruned to say 5 to 10 % of what it originally was and this happens due to the usage and non-usage of our brain cells. So, that simply means as children grow their brains’ neural capacities are getting customized around those things that the child is exposed to or experiencing and not on
things that the child doesn’t do.

So, if our natural capacities are not explored as early as in childhood; through school education or training, then the chance is that we may never discover it. Thus, it’s important we center our education around discovering our creative abilities.

Note:

Creative Thinking Index (CTI) is a non-linear and agile scale used within the SchoolWizard application focusing on helping children discover & develop their natural capacities and their respective learning/thinking orientation.

Creative Schooling and its Intrinsic Process:

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun”

Mary Lou Cook.

Creativity is an iterative process in itself and might involve multiple levels of ideation and idea evaluation. The generation of ideas could depend on the interest, curiosity, level of exposure, familiarity with a medium to express their capacity, imagination etc. It’s this awareness or the intricate connection between these elements that leads to creativity.

Thus, the creative process might involve going through multiple phases connecting the above elements until the final output is produced. This understanding is critical; as in some cases it might require a huge journey before a finished version is achieved and without making the right connections that trigger insights, it will be difficult to complete that creative achievement.

Thus, it’s important to understand that the creative process involves acquiring the necessary skills (Medium of expression) and an iterative process that takes us closer every time through ideation and idea evaluation cycles.

Creative Process = Acquiring skills of a complimenting medium + Iterative {Generating Ideas + Evaluation}

So, creative schooling not only involves exposing children to experiences that would help them discover their true potential; it also involves guiding them through the creative process journey that would help the child explore their natural capacities by applying original ideas.

“There’s room for everybody on the planet to be creative and conscious if you are your person. If you’re trying to be like somebody else, then there isn’t.“

Tori Amos.

Conclusion:

For ages, education has been primarily focused on Economic viability through brick and motor schooling and tends to overlook skills that have value from a cultural or community point of view. And completely turns a blind eye to those skills that instill personal growth in the child.

As we celebrate our 12th graders A+ achievements in academics, which is important; we often forget to celebrate or highlight the success of those who have also wisely used their time in school to discover and groom their talents phenomenally, in a way that could be their future. Even after 200 years post-industrial era, we are still blinded by the traditional form of education which focuses primarily on academics. For human development and growth, we need to have a much more diverse form of education, that would analyze and groom the learning and thinking orientation of every child, in a way suitable for bringing out the best in them in all situations of life; understanding their talents and unique skills.

So, creative schooling is the mantra to instill this transformation in our current education system. All around the world changes are happening in this direction; we too need to be part of this movement that aims at bringing a much more holistic approach to education.