{"id":142,"date":"2020-10-09T11:36:27","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T11:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/?p=142"},"modified":"2020-10-09T11:37:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T11:37:13","slug":"creativity-is-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"Creativity is the key to education"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"cookie-compliance\" class=\"cookie-compliance clearfix\">\n<div class=\"cookie-compliance__inner\">\n<div class=\"cookie-compliance__text\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<header class=\"site-header clearfix\">\n<nav class=\"site-nav\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"nav-links\">\n<div class=\"mega-menu-row mega-menu row event-mg\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"main-mega-menu-section\">\n<div class=\"large-12 columns ns-network\">\n<div class=\"network-sites\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-4 columns\">\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 1.25rem\">This article was written by Dan Holden back in 2014 in the New Statesmen<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/nav>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div id=\"container\" class=\"parallax\">\n<div class=\"region region-content\">\n<div class=\"article-featured-image parallax-layer parallax-layer-back\">\n<div class=\"main-content\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<article class=\"large-8 columns primary-content article-column\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div id=\"node-142774\" class=\"node node-blogs node-full\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<header class=\"large-9 columns article-header\">\n<h1 class=\"title inf_class\" data-analyticsid=\"\/politics\/2014\/11\/creativity-key-education-so-why-arent-we-pursuing-it\">Creativity is the key to education, so why aren&#8217;t we pursuing it?<\/h1>\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-subheadline field-type-text-long field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080\">With an innovation problem in the UK\u2019s economy, many children being disengaged with education and a desire for user-led services, now is the time to aggressively support creativity in schools.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<aside class=\"large-3 columns article-author\">\n<div class=\"multiple-author-images\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem\">Last week, the Education Secretary made a <\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thestage.co.uk\/news\/2014\/11\/education-secretary-nicky-morgan-arts-subjects-limit-career-choices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">speech<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 1rem\"> at the launch of an education campaign that wants to promote the subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). In her speech, Nicky Morgan said that the choice by pupils to study traditionally creative subjects, the humanities and arts, would in fact restrict their career choices. Morgan\u2019s comments come as the latest in a long line of political misunderstanding about the value and significance of creativity.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<section class=\"large-9 columns\">\n<div class=\"content node-blogs\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>Creativity in schools isn\u2019t just restricted to the teaching of &#8220;creative&#8221; subjects; art, English etc. In fact even that definition of what subjects are creative is a misstatement of what creativity can mean. Sir Ken Robinson, the go to man on issues of creativity in schools, has previously <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2013\/may\/17\/to-encourage-creativity-mr-gove-understand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">written<\/a> about an interview he did with Hans Zimmer, the Oscar winning composer. Apparently Zimmer was a disruptive child at school; he was thrown out of eight of them. When he got to the ninth, the head teacher took him to one side and spoke to him, trying to figure out how to get Zimmer involved in education. Zimmer said he liked music and so the head teacher organised for him to study music, which went onto improve his performance and engagement across all subjects and led to his successful career.<\/p>\n<div id=\"dianomi-smart-4306\" class=\"\"><\/div>\n<p>The creativity we see in this example isn\u2019t only the music that the music that Hans Zimmer played, but also the teaching method. The head teacher was creative in their teaching methods, something which is sadly becoming more and more difficult in a heavily regulated teaching environment. It\u2019s the strange paradox of the coalition\u2019s education that they pursue a top-down approach whilst also crying \u2018autonomy\u2019 while they let groups set up free schools.<\/p>\n<p>One current political trend is for localism; bottom-up politics. We can see it in the push for greater devolution (particularly amongst proponents of a constitutional convention) and in the movement for patient-led services. Creativity can provide this trend with a home in education; teachers who are able to determine their own teaching methods in response to what children want and need. School is a notoriously divisive experience for people, with many disengaging entirely with it. Surely if the way in which they were taught was responsive\u00a0 and creative, students will respond better to education.<\/p>\n<p>This idea touches upon one of the core tenets of creativity; self-determination. Creativity gives a voice to a person\u2019s thoughts, whether it be in writing a song or developing some new software for internal company use. It also, despite prejudices suggesting otherwise, contributes to the economy. A recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/booksblog\/2014\/nov\/06\/scientists-outshine-arts-students-with-experiments-in-creative-writing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">experiment<\/a> saw that science students outperformed arts students on a creative writing task. You might think this backs up Nicky Morgan\u2019s point, when in fact it does the complete opposite because the experiment showed the value of creative thought of scientists in their workplace. The creativity and innovation of these scientists push forward the organisations they work for, instilling the atmosphere of a startup company, the small businesses of which the coalition government is so <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-16459492\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proud<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"dianomi-smart-4308\" class=\"\"><\/div>\n<p>The perspective that Nicky Morgan has on the humanities and arts (and by the way shouldn\u2019t she be doing something about employment prospects?) is representative of a wider problem that government has with creativity. Nicky Morgan\u2019s predecessor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/education-12227491\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Gove<\/a> was fond of saying that creativity could only come off the back of formal education in topics like grammar and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2010\/nov\/17\/david-cameron-harry-potter-funding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Cameron<\/a> has expressed his preference for a UK film industry that produces more blockbusters like Harry Potter and less independent films. These men have shown that the coalition doesn\u2019t get creativity, it isn\u2019t just about producing Hollywood blockbuster\u2019s or forcing children to write grammatically correct haikus; it\u2019s about expression, innovation and self-determination. If the government can\u2019t see the economic, political and <a href=\"http:\/\/classonline.org.uk\/pubs\/item\/raising-our-quality-of-life\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">societal<\/a> benefits to a creative education, then perhaps they need to think a bit more creatively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"about-the-author\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 columns author-details\">\n<p>Dan Holden leads on political research at ComRes. He tweets <a href=\"http:\/\/dansholden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@DanSHolden<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-footer-promotion\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div id=\"block-views-34dc7ecb1c07cf1ca5e5111ba3aecfee\" class=\"block block-views\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<div class=\"view view-article-footer-promotion-uk-politics view-id-article_footer_promotion_uk_politics view-display-id-articlefooterspromo view-dom-id-fea140cfdacba6f68f35b0c3a65995fc\">\n<div class=\"view-content\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"large-2 small-2 columns magazine-cover\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/magazine-cover-thumb\/public\/magazinecovers\/2020_41_long_covid_med_0.jpg?itok=qxC52fPy\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"large-10 small-10 columns promotion-text-remove\">\n<h3><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"nsfooter\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-12\">\n<div class=\"sociallist\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was written by Dan Holden back in 2014 in the New Statesmen &nbsp; Creativity is the key to education, so why aren&#8217;t we pursuing it? With an innovation problem in the UK\u2019s economy, many children being disengaged with education and a desire for user-led services, now is the time to aggressively support creativity &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/?p=142\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Creativity is the key to education<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6810,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theory","eportfolio_category-none"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6810"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sb\/creativity\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}