Restraining creative thinkers: a dull future

By Matt Lee

ELON- The future’s struggles are unknown, but America’s education system is continuing to repress creative thinkers, discouraging innovators from transforming the future, according to Sir Ken Robinson. The issue affects college campuses around the nation including Elon University, a school Robinson visited Monday morning.

“Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it as such,” Robinson said.

Robinson led the British government’s 1998 advisory committee on cultural education and was knighted in 2003 for his education reforms. Since then, he has made speeches urging educators to rethink the education system; one that cuts creative programs and denounces the arts. Intelligence is dynamic and creativity is an outlet for students to discover their talents, Robinson said.

One of the forums for expressing creativity at Elon University is through the performing arts, a department that has had significant budget cuts. Dr. Dean Gallery, chair of the Elon University Performing Arts Department, says their budget is cut about 3 percent each year. Reduced financial funding has stopped many students from pursuing a performing arts degree at Elon.

“We lose students to the school of the arts because [other arts schools] have much better funding,” assistant professor Dr. Bull Margin said. “I think education can restrict the creativity of young people.”

According to a 2012 National Center for Education Statistics report, the top bachelor’s degrees were concentrated in two fields: education and business.

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“Every education system on earth has the same hierarchy of subjects: at the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts,” Robinson said.

Robinson believes the increasing disregard for creative expression neglects students who thrive in a different setting. Acting majors like first-year student Tony Weaver often feel the pressure to leave the arts.

“The only reason I am allowed to be [in the acting program] is because I am double-majoring in communications,” Weaver said.

Weaver’s parents initially rejected his passion for acting. They later realized acting was more than just a hobby — it was something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. However, some students still struggle to choose a major that often garners lower salaries and less parental support.

“My parents support me 100 percent but they are also realistic in saying that I need to have something else so I won’t live that starving artist lifestyle,” Weaver said.

But not every artist lives a “starving artist lifestyle.” Robinson talked about Gillian Lynne, a girl who struggled to focus in school. Lynne was almost treated for ADD, but during the session she started dancing to the radio and the psychiatrist realized she just needed to be challenged in her own realm. Lynne was then enrolled into a dance school and became a distinguished choreographer famous for the musical “Cats.”

Robinson’s new book “Epiphany” became available at the Elon University Bookstore Monday and reinforces strategies needed to foster creativity in the American education system in order to prepare students for a successful career.

“We all have a vested interest in education because it takes us into this future that we cannot grasp,” Robinson said.

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Click here to listen to Sir Ken Robinson’s speech on creativity and the education system.