Standardised Minds: Teaching Creativity Out Of Kids 

If we think back to primary school, we may remember ourselves as imaginative children with plenty of creative energy and ideas. Whether through inventive role-playing games, drawing and painting, or building shapes with Lego blocks, young children are often remarkably creative. However, this creative tendency often dwindles as children progress through the education system.  

Under the conservative government of the past 14 years, arts funding has dramatically decreased, and schools have been strongly encouraged to prioritise the pursuit of STEM subjects over all else. As a result of this widespread underappreciation of artistic subjects, creative students may be struggling in an educational environment that doesn’t value their academic skillset. A lack of financial input into the arts may discourage students from pursuing their artistic talents at university, ultimately causing a loss of creative potential in society.  

Aside from artistic ability, creativity can come in the form of a divergent thinking style: the ability to create multiple unique solutions to problems. The education system undervalues this imaginative form of thinking by assessing knowledge through strict marking criteria that look for one correct answer. This technique may be a good measure of ability to arbitrarily repeat information taught in class, but it also encourages reductive thinking and doesn’t credit creative solutions. Students may set aside their alternative ideas as they won’t receive marks for thinking outside of the box. Therefore, the education system can foster a habit of reductive thinking in previously creative children, leading them to gradually lose their childish inventiveness as they get older.  

Contrary to the ideas fed to us in school, skills which are cultivated by the arts are incredibly important in the workplace and contribute massively to society. Fostering creativity allows us to break away from established concepts to produce novel solutions to problems, without which there would be no innovation. Furthermore, creating art contributes to social change, cultural identity, and community spirit. Therefore, creativity should be encouraged in children, rather than taught out of them. 

If you don’t identify as a creative person, maybe the education system has ground down your creative potential by not rewarding divergent, inventive thinking styles. Alternatively, maybe you were dissuaded from pursuing artistic passions due to your schools’ prioritisation of STEM subjects. Either way, it is never too late to develop your artistic potential and contribute to one of the most important sectors in our society.