Sir Ken Robinson: Promoting Creativity an Economic Imperative
As other nations begin to outpace the U.S. in the production of scientists, engineers and IT professionals, education policies are centering on greater rigor in mathematics and science education. Now coming into focus, however, is a new facet of the economic picture that poses vastly different educational challenges.
While scientific knowledge and technological tools will continue to be vital, artistry and creative thinking are becoming the new economic imperatives, and artists are among the new knowledge workers. According to Sir Ken Robinson, the time is long overdue for "a fresh understanding of intelligence, of human capacity, and of the nature of creativity."
Addressing education and cultural leaders and their arts partners at Ohio's recent Promoting Creativity Conference, Robinson criticized imbalances in the typical K-12 curriculum. He noted that the content and thought processes of language, mathematics and science are considered most important while the arts are least valued. Similarly, mastery of facts and analytical thinking are over-emphasized while emotion and intuition are downplayed.
Discounting creative intelligence, he said, alienates some students and narrows the range of opportunities for understanding academic content.
Do today's schools develop creativity?
According to Robinson's book, Out of Our Minds, creativity is "a dynamic interplay between generating ideas and making judgments about them." That interplay comes naturally to children and can be either fostered and developed or neglected and stifled. Creativity is lessened when too many learning experiences focus on quickly finding the single right answer and too few stress generating possibilities, experimenting, adapting and taking risks. To underscore this point, Robinson cited a longitudinal study as evidence that today's school experience runs counter to the development of creativity: When a group of preschoolers was tested for divergent thinking—a key element of creativity—98% were found to be at the genius level. The group was tested every few years, and each time that percentage dropped significantly. By the time the group reached age 25, only 2% had maintained their original genius in divergent thinking.
If that percentage is any reflection of our future workforce, the U.S. is losing its competitive edge in meeting the economic challenges of the next decade.
Books About the Creative Economy
Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative by Sir Ken Robinson. West Sussex, England: Capstone Publishing Ltd, 2001.
Tough Choices for Tough Times: The Report of the NEW Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce by the National Center on Education and the Economy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink, New York: Penguin, 2005, 2006.
The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, New York: Basic Books, 2002.
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas L. Friedman, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Why does creativity matter more today?
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, creative industries are the fastest growing segment of the economy and account for about 30% of the workforce. The creative economy includes the roughly 4.8 million full-time equivalent jobs in the nonprofit arts and many millions more in industries that are driven by creative ideas, designs and solutions. From the demand for creative content in films, music, books, video games, software and Web sites to the interdisciplinary challenges of science and technology to the growing importance of aesthetics, customization and meaning in the design of products and the delivery of services, the new economy is now calling for what writer Daniel Pink calls "a whole new mind."
According to Pink, "high tech is no longer enough." The next wave of workers also must have a good measure of "the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patterns and opportunities, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention." Empathy, the pursuit of purpose and meaning, and keen understanding of "the subtleties of human interaction" also are qualities that will be at a premium in many of tomorrow's jobs.
Such "high concept" and "high touch" abilities are the products of creative thinkers. Therefore, a critical challenge that should be commanding attention and resources in the coming years will be how to create learning environments that support and strengthen students' natural creativity and help prepare them for work that requires not only knowledge but also imagination, adaptability, expressiveness and interdisciplinary thinking.
This article was published in January 2007, Volume 3, No 1.
Also indexed under Perspectives: Reflections by Advocates and Experts
