Education vs Creativity
“My education was interrupted only by my schooling”- Winston Churchill
Following up on my last post about a phenomenon called the Indigo Children, I would like to elaborate on the most important idea: that, whether or not you believe in the indigos, it is undeniable that today’s world is moving very quickly, and we must keep up with it. We cannot afford to have one of the most important systems –education- become outdated.
Children nowadays are different, whether we explain it by evolution of genetics or by simple adaptations to the new technologies and challenges of today. My four year old niece has her own laptop, and calls me on skype on her own. I didn’t have an e-mail address until I was about 13 or so.
The world is changing, but the education system is still the same. Mathematics and the sciences at the top, physical education and arts at the bottom. And it is aimed at making everybody the same. Standardized. And anything different is wrong. If you’re not good at math, its practically the same as saying you’re going to fail at life. And before it was like that: you had to learn facts, graduate, get a college degree, get a good job.
But now everything is different. A college degree isn’t a guarantee of a good job. You need something extra. You need to be innovative, creative. You need to stand out, to be different.But isn’t it ironic that your entire life you had to learn to fit in, learn to follow rules and be inside the box, and suddenly, its’ like, none of that really matters.
Creativity is what drives progress. It’s what, in a way “makes the world go round”
So why is it that the education system seems to be aimed at stripping children of the gift of creativity?
This article was inspired by a video that was sent to me from one of you, my dear readers, of a speaker at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, Sir Ken Robinson, called “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” (Please youtube it when you have a free minute.)
He talks about the fact that education has its priorities wrong: not to teach really, and not to inspire and light a spark in the children, but to fill them with the standard program and create a fear of making mistakes. He makes an incredibly good point during his presentation: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.”
It’s the idea that children and young adults have this burning potential, that, if not recognized, or if it’s suffocated by standardization, can go to waste. He gives an example:
“I’m doing a new book at the moment called, Epiphany, which is based on a series of interviews with people about how they discovered their talent. I’m fascinated about how people got to be there. It’s really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman who most people have never heard of, she’s called, Julian Lynn.
Have you heard of her? Some have. She’s a choreographer and everybody knows her work. She did Cats and Phantom of the Opera. She’s wonderful. I used to be on the board of the Royal Ballet in England, as you can see. And eh, anyway Julian and I had lunch together one day and I said, ‘Julian how did you get to be a dancer?’ And she said it was interesting; when she was at school she was really hopeless.
And the school in the thirties wrote to her parents and said, ‘we think Julian has a learning disorder.’ She couldn’t concentrate, she was fidgeting. I think now they’d say she had ADHD, wouldn’t you? But this was the 1930’s and ADHD hadn’t been invented, you know, at this point, so it wasn’t an available condition, you know. People weren’t aware they could have that.
Anyway, she went to see this specialist in this oak panelled room and she was there with her mother and she was led and sat on this chair at the end. And she sat on her hands for twenty minutes while this man talked to her mother about all the problems she was having at school. And at the end of it (because she was disturbing people and her homework was always late and so on, a little kid of eight) In the end, the doctor went and sat next to Julian and said I’ve listened to all these things your mother has told me I need to speak to her privately so he said, ‘wait here we’ll be back. we won’t be very long’ And they went and left her. But as they went out of the room, he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk, and when they got out of the room, he said to her mother, ‘just stand and watch her.’
The minute they left the room she said she was on her feet moving to the music and they watched for a few minutes and he turned to her mother and said, ‘You know, Mrs Lynn, Julian isn’t sick she’s a dancer. Take her to a dance school.’ I said, ‘what happened? She said, ‘She did. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was. We walked into this room and it was full of people like me; people who couldn’t sit still. People who had to move to think.’
They did ballet, they did tap, they did jazz, they did modern, they did contemporary. She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School. She became a soloist. She had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School and founded her own company; the Julian Lynn Dance Company, met Andrew Lloyd Weber.
She has been responsible for some of the most successful musical theatre productions in history. She has given pleasure to millions and she’s a multi- millionaire.
Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down.”
Truth and Lies, and something in between
"Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be."
-W. Shakespeare, Sonnet 138
Out of all the 'sins' of today, the most common, the most feared, and the most underestimated, I believe, is lying.
"To lie is to state something that one knows to be false or that one does not honestly believe to be true with the intention
to deceive others, often with the further intention to maintain a secret
or reputation, protect someone's feelings or to avoid a punishment or repercussion for one's actions."
- from our beloved Wikipedia.
(That is no longer a valid reference source for most academic papers. Sad, but true.)
- from our beloved Wikipedia.
(That is no longer a valid reference source for most academic papers. Sad, but true.)
So now that we got the definition out of the way....
We all do it. Most, if not all, of us feel guilty about it. But sadly there is nothing to be done. Sometimes lies help things go smoother, mostly white lies, the ones that don't really matter. They help things move along with minimum drama. You know the ones that I mean: "Nothing's wrong", "Yes, you look wonderful", "Yes, I'm almost finished with that assignment", "It wasn't me", "I don't know how that got there", "It's ok, it happens to everyone", and of course "Size doesn't matter."
These little lies usually don't hurt too much, but sometimes they do backfire unexpectedly, so limit their use.
But what hurts us and others more is the abnormal kind of lies.
The ones that imply betrayal, the ones that we build up on purpose and fight hard to keep. And the worst of all these are the lies we tell ourselves.
What happens then when a person lies to themselves?
It seems physically impossible to believe a lie that is told to oneself. I mean, you know you're lying. So there is no doubt.So how can you believe it? Impossible.
But how to you explain the situations in which it works?
For example, ever tried faking happiness? When you feel absolutely terrible, you can physically force yourself to smile, even if its ironic. And it works! It seems like the physical movement creates the same chemical reaction as the real thing: endorphins are released, and you feel better.
But its a lie... right?
But its a lie... right?
Another common example for women are so called modern mantras. Once just a religious thing, they're now used in an effort to help women gain more self-confidence. Repeating certain motivational phrases daily helps women. Even if they're not really true, they help. And they actually help them change, to make the statement true.
But its a lie... right?
What about lies that you don't consciously understand? Anorexia for example. Anorexic women look at themselves in a mirror and see a distorted reality, they see a lie. But it's their brain lying to them, nobody else. They're lying to themselves, creating a different version of reality.
But its all a lie... right?
I guess what I'm trying to get at is that this is not such a simple concept. Especially when we get psychological aspects involved in the discussion...
We, women especially, lie to keep ourselves happy. Often. Ironic, but true. And I can't figure out if it's a bad thing or not.
What do you think? (New feedback page available, check at the top)
What do you think? (New feedback page available, check at the top)
Seems like any sort of happiness better than being miserable, even if it is based on lies?
We create our own reality. So if we lie ourselves into believing something, after some time it becomes the truth for us. Of course this is a very sensitive issue, and it doesn't work for all things. Most importantly, it shouldn't work for all things, it's dangerous and harmful. But for some, this is a means of survival.
If you're trapped in a situation. You might as well enjoy it, or get something positive out of it, even if you have to lie or fake your way through it. And after a while you start to believe in your lies. At which point they actually stop being lies.
A bit of a controversial issue, and even I don't agree with it 100% I think, but I like pointing out these aspects. Think about it.
It's how arranged marriages work. It's how people can stand terrible job positions. It's how we deal with difficulties in relationships. It's how we make peace with our parents during conflicts. There are a lot of situations in life that you simply don't want to face in absolute truth. You look for ways to get yourself to be OK with it. And what is that if not a type of lying to yourself?
Another aspect I want to cover is how the belief in a lie can be have the same effect as the truth.
I'm talking about the Placebo Effect. For those unfamiliar with the subject, a brief overview:
"The physician's belief in the treatment and the patient's faith in the physician exert a mutually reinforcing effect; the result is a powerful remedy that is almost guaranteed to produce an improvement and sometimes a cure." -- Petr Skrabanek and James McCormick, Follies and Fallacies in Medicine, p. 13.
"A placebo (Latin for "I shall please") is a
pharmacologically inert substance that produces an effect similar to what would be expected of a
pharmacologically active substance (such as an antibiotic).The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in
health or behavior not attributable to a medication or invasive treatment that has been
administered."
In simple terms, if a person believes enough in the fact that he/she is given medicine that will help them, even if they are given fake medicine aka sugar pills, the effect will be similar, or even the same as if they had been given real medication.
It's a lie? But if you believe enough that it is the truth, your body doesn't know the difference. Scary, huh?
So what can we conclude?
That things are never as simple as they may seem. Yes, lying is bad. Mostly. But sometimes it is useful, and , yes, rarely, but still, sometimes it is necessary.
But use it sparingly and with caution. Because, once caught, there will be trouble.
(And what better way to end than with a little taste of Nietzsche?)
“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you” -Friedrich Nietzsche
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie
http://www.skepdic.com/placebo.html
http://uk.askmen.com/dating/heidi_200/211b_dating_girl.html
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme/images/how-can-we-tell-if-someone-is-lying-to-us.jpg (photo)
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