Have you lost creativity or has it just been overshadowed by other things ? Last week I attended my first open mic evening. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but I was asked to go along to provide some interactive singing. The night was all about encouraging women in Wakefield to let their creative voices be heard - Women’s Voices Ring Out!
It was an evening of creativity: poetry, stories and music but what stayed with me the most was a comment by one of the contributors who said that over the years had all of her creativity stamped out. Do you know what profession she had been in? Teaching.
This struck a nerve with me – surely of all professions teaching should be creative? After all teachers have a secondary role (after a parent) to inspire, nurture, motivate and challenge children to become better, greater, free thinking people, don’t they?
It saddened me to think that if teachers feel this then how are we ever going to get our forward thinkers, the people who lead, inspire and create if all schools do is stamp out creativity of its teachers and pupils?
I can see no change in Government. We seem to need to manufacture subordinate, conforming, non-questioning children. More tests; more focus on sitting at a desks; less freedom of movement and chances to be creative. Many children end up hating school, hating learning and that should never be. We should love learning, love challenging ourselves, discovering new things.
Those that go against the grain maybe labelled as “trouble” or “un-teachable” but I really don’t believe this to be true. I have seen children who struggle with aspects of academic subjects but it doesn’t mean they cannot learn, it just means we have to try and find another way. Trying to fit children into a box just creates a feeling of being confined.
I for the most part am a conforming person. I have rights and wrongs and generally just want to live a happy life. However there are times I feel confined and trapped and sometimes I rebel. This is why I am self-employed. It means I can make decisions, I can be creative and have fun teaching children. Yes fun! Learning should be fun and can be fun, children have amazing imaginations and the way they look at things is refreshing and we need to take their lead sometimes.
How can we put children through a system where learning is a series of monotonous tests and sitting at desks? Is this deliberate? After all learning is knowledge and knowledge is power right? Keep the masses in the gutter. Who dares to question?
After working for the Police I realised I could never work in that type of organisation again. Apparently I am “demonstrative” – what me? I will show my feelings if I don’t believe something is right, I question and look at things from different points of view. What I hope is that my children don’t have creativity stamped out of them and I am going to do everything I can to encourage that.
Many times I have thought of becoming a teacher in school but the system puts me off. I know I would be frustrated, demoralised and left disgruntled. I know people who go into teaching want to make a difference – they don’t just do it for the money – good for you for trying to make a difference I totally admire you!
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