crushing creativity

Sir Ken Robinson, in his wonderful talk at TED on creativity and schools, makes a case for the importance of risk-taking and making mistakes when learning. He says, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." In schools, where we focus so much of our attention on the educational outcomes of school (answers, test scores) rather than the educational processes, many of our children are becoming less and less willing to take risks in the classroom because they're afraid they'll make a mistake - they're afraid to be wrong.

I spend much of my time in my classroom telling my students that I'll never be cross if they answer a question and get it wrong. But I will be sad if they never try. And there are some students who make me smile every day as they raise their hands to answer questions - and get it wrong. But they have the resilience to not let that bother them. Minutes later, there they are, raising their hand again, looking to make a contribution to the lesson. And I think, "Good on you."

I teach Reception and Grade One (that's 5 and 6 year olds for any of the O.S. folk). I have taught kids up to the ages of ten and it is a shame that, generally, as they get older they become less and less willing to take these risks. As teachers I think we have to take some of the blame for this.

We (and the system we work in) are the ones who put a focus on test scores and right answers. And so the kids think these are the most important things. But they're not.

How often have we heard the phrase "It's not the destination, but the journey that's important"? And I think this applies equally in education. The educational journey, how we arrive at a result, is every bit as important as the result itself. I really hope that the students in my classes come to realise and understand this in their own way.

I am often amazed at the creativity of my students - particularly when it comes to what they like to call "box construction". But it saddens me when they bring me a picture and ask "Is this good?" How do I answer that? I generally say something like "Well, what do you think? Are you happy with it? What do you like about it?" But I am sure there is a better answer - I just haven't found it yet.