Do we only educate children progressively from the waist up?

At present, I am teaching Nurture creativity in young children. As you all know by now, I like to look at things from different perspectives, so I was trying to find a talk or article on negative implications if creativity is missing in early childhood. In my searches, I came across this amazing TED talk called ‘Schools kill creativity’. 

Through this talk, Sir Ken Robinson speaks about all children having talents, but as children progress through school, creativity is crushed. If creativity is as important as literacy why is this not embedded into our programs? I started to reflect and think about Early Childhood programs and I had to agree, why is creativity only in the ‘art corner’ from 10-12 pm, but in the afternoon children don’t have access to paint… and is that because children are not creative in the afternoon? No! It’s because adults do not want to clean ‘the mess’ as adults are more worried about having a clean centre rather than children being creative. This is not always the case, however, I have seen this as a consultant. 

It is the same as music, why is music only available at certain times of the day, children who learn kinaesthetically should have access to music at all times. Sir Ken Robinson uses Gillian Lynne as an example. When she was little she could not sit ‘still’ at school, so her parents took her to the doctor. When they left the room, they put the radio on and she immediately began to dance. The doctor turned to the Mother and said ‘Gillian is not sick, she needs to move to think!”. Gillian Lynne became a famous choreographer of Cats – The Musical. How many children are like Gillian, but only to be seen by a doctor and given medication?

As children progress through school we stop teaching the entire child and only teach the child from the waist up, as creativity is overshadowed by academia. 

The more I watched the more I was enthralled by what Sir Ken Robinson was talking about. I reflected on my own teaching pedagogy and wondered if I was also guilty of killing creativity? I reflected on Howard Gardeners multiple intelligences theory- intelligence is diverse, so between the Being, Belonging and Becoming- Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standards, are we promoting creativity enough into our programs? Or do educators feel a barrier when it comes to teaching’ creative arts’? perhaps educators don’t feel confident enough?

As educators, remember, we have to educate their WHOLE being.

I invite you all to watch this as a team and have an open discussion- is creative arts embedded into your program or could this be your next continuous improvement strategy?

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity