Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson Talk

This is a very interesting video clip. Sir Ken Robinson is speaking about how education focuses most heavily on math and science topics and the least on the arts. He is concerned that this is inhibiting many children's creativity. I particularly enjoyed his quote of Picasso that all children are born with creativity, but many grow out of it as they get older. It seems that today's education system is making it incredibly hard for students to maintain and build upon the creativity that they were born with. Why is it that schools require math and science to be taught every year, but classes that involve music, dance, or fine arts are not required for more than one or two semesters?
In Sir Robinson's words, intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. Every person has a unique set of talents, they are always building on these talents and changing, and they are different from the person next to them. Children learn differently from one another and teachers must understand that in order to properly educate them.
When I am a teacher, I will strive to incorporate as many teaching styles as possible so that every student may benefit equally from being in my classroom. I want them to understand the concepts and be able to apply them to whatever they may be doing currently or in the future. Relate fractions to music, geometric shapes and graphs to dance, movement, and drawing. As a member of the Marching Illini, music and the arts are a large part of my life. I would not enjoy seeing anyone's love of music or art stifled by today's focus on math and science. They are important topics, but developing and nurturing a child's given talent is more important.