A new purpose for school education

According to education supremo Sir Ken Robinson "schools kill creativity". And although all children are born talented, mistake making is so stigmatized they become frightened of being wrong.

Creativity is now more important than literacy to cope with a world of accelerating change, where knowledge reaches its use-by-date in decades rather than centuries.



He says schools are designed as a competition to educate people from the waist or neck up, and "slightly to one side". The winners are people who become lecturers and professors who "see their bodies as a form of transport for their heads".

We place the sciences and mathematics at the top of the learning hierarchy, the social sciences in the middle and the creative subjects such as drama, art, dance, and physical education at the bottom. Robinson argues it should be the other way around.

What we now have now is a left frontal lobe learning system, that educates young people out of their creativity. We socialize them into giving automatic "correct" responses to closed questions. We squander their talents and preparedness to take risks. We equip them for jobs that will not exist when they complete their studies.

And so the wonderful right frontal lobe ability to create and implement new ideas becomes lost to society, except for the very few, who rebel against the system.

Here's a workshop to creatively explore what we would like the education system to become in the future:

1. What would the learning system be like if it was designed for a rapidly changing world with a greater focus on creativity?
2. List and describe the major changes in the world we might expect over the next few decades and the impact this will have on the lives of people in the 2030s. (e.g. entertainment+education > edutainment etc.)
3. Describe the lifestyle of a typical 30 year old citizen living in 2030. How will he/she live?
4. What kind of work/activities will people enjoy in the mid 21st Century? Name and describe the new activities e.g. nano-medic, replacing body parts with nano-machines.
5. What will relationships and family life be like in the mid 21st Century?
6. What kinds of skills, values, attitudes and outlook will a 21st Century citizen need to be successful in business/community/life?
7. What does our school, college or university currently do very well upon which we should build or focus? (e.g. drama, art)
8. What are the aspects of our school, college or university we would want to change/improve over the next 20 years?
9. What kind of learning experiences will we need to create for young people to acquire the skills, values, etc. to be effective and successful in the next century?
10. What will our school to be like (structure, relationships, culture, staffing, technology, linkages)?
11. Describe a day in the life of a student at our school in in the mid 21st Century.
12. What should be the key goals for our students in the mid 21st Century? How will we/they know if they have been successful?