Do schools kill creativity?

I believe our only hope for the future it to adopt a new conception of
human ecology, one in which we start we reconstitute our conception of
the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our
minds in the way that we have strip-mined the earth for a particular
commodity, and for the future it won’t service. We have to rethink the
fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children.

Sir Ken Robinson

In a stunning talk for the TED conference last year, Sir Ken Robinson argues that our education system is based on old fashioned ideas of achievement; that the goal of education is to put titles before and after our names, rather than equip children for a changing world. He argues that creativity is educated out of us, and creative subjects such Art, Drama and Dance are very much secondary to more ‘academic’ subjects such as Languages and Sciences.

I experienced this process as I progressed through the education system, and I’m seeing its effects in my current place of work, where productivity is blighted by a lack of creative thinking. Furthermore, I know many people for who School education did not work, yet I consider them to be incredibly intelligent people. Robinson talks about a spectrum of intelligence in our society, however it seems that only a small part of this spectrum is addressed in our schools.

A better quality version of the presentation is at the TED site.

Growing Up in the Universe

In 1991, Richard Dawkins presented the Royal Institution Christmas lectures for Children, and to help illustrate our tendency to think we are superior to the rest of the species on the planet, he invited a member of the audience to read an excerpt from Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

The lecture series, titled ‘Growing up the Universe’ has recently been released on DVD. I remember it when it was first broadcast on the BBC, and as a 15 year-old who’d had a vaguely Christian education and thus had many unanswered questions about our origins, it was a wonderfully inspiring and educational piece of television.

On Radio 4’s Thought for the Day

Much as I like Radio 4, the one-sidedness of the Thought for the Day section of the Today programme disappoints me. Why are religious views implicit when we think of Thought for the Day, when there is no such mention of religion in the title?

In 2002, representatives of the British Humanist Association, the National Secular Society and the Rationalist Press Association sent a letter to the BBC complaining about the fact that the two minute, forty-five second slot is only for the broadcasting of religious views. As a result, the BBC granted some air-time for a secular viewpoint from Richard Dawkins, and this wasn’t even part of the Thought for Day slot. Furthermore, while there have been speakers representing other faiths, the views expressed are pretty much always from the believers in a Judeo-Christian God.

Just as the BBC has policy of un-biased, neutral reporting of news, should not the same be true for the Thought for the Day. I have no problem with some religious view expressed, but how about about a more balanced selection of speakers throughout the week?

To provide this balance, I’ve had the idea of providing a ‘Rational Thought for the Day’ podcast including audio and video of prominent secular thinkers and writers, and maybe publish it at around 07:50 when the Radio 4 version goes out. It would take a bit of development time and a lot of co-ordination, but does anyone think this would be a good idea?

National Dark-Sky Week

Under a clear night sky, it’s good to look up and sense the beauty and magnitude of space.

Unfortunately a combination of urban sprawl and inefficient street lighting means that if you live in or near a city, it is becoming the case that if you want to see stars, the only way of doing it is to get a friend to give you a sharp tap on the head with solid object.

A less painful method – if you’re in the US anyway – is to partake in National Dark-Sky Week, “an event, usually occurring in April, during which people in the United States are encouraged to turn out their unnecessary outdoor lights in order to temporarily reduce light pollution”.