Let’s reword the title to start with; Do we educate the creativity out of children? Go get yourself a cup of coffee and a danish, set aside 20 minutes and watch this speech by Ken Robinson from 2 years ago.

What really struck me was the point he makes about the point of education being to prepare people for university entrance. I used to work in a training and development team in a telecoms company. We did a wide range of courses of varying levels of effectiveness but I now think back on the course called “Creativity Skills”. It was 1 day long and it was pointless.

If Ken Robinson is right then having this course in our catalogue was ludicrous – like trying to demolish Edinburgh Castle with a bent toothpick. We employee people having put them through an education system that values non-creative activity, given them a degree and then told them that they can only work effectively if they use their “innate creativity”. Well, that particular part of their brain hasn’t been properly encouraged since primary school and now  we think that a 1 day course will redress that particular imbalance.

Bonkers!

Again, I’m writing a post that has only tenuous links to ICT in education but it is still one small planet  that orbits that particular sun. Look at the post on Thru You I did recently. A fabulous example of creativity and ICT coming together.

There are fantastic tools  out on the web to encourage creativity and they’re either underused in education or actively banned.

Right, I’m off for a jam session with my best mate. Cheers!