Permission Granted ~ 1

At the beginning of formal education, we are not asked if we wish to go to school, nor are we given permission to go to school, but we are expected to go to school. There is a buildup, to follow our siblings footsteps into classrooms and activities of learning. This expectation arose with the development of public school systems over the last 150 - 200 years, and in some countries only over the last 50 years. Each culture has had their own formal educational systems, much of it tied to the religious organizations of the day - whether Catholic, Islamic or Jewish. 

As cultures have meshed, secular ideologies have developed, schools focused more on the task oriented classes - reading, writing and ‘arithmetic; shop and home economics. Art, penmanship and music, while in early classrooms was standard, have been winnowed away with education dollars.

Arithmetic has graduated to calculus, algebra, and trigonometry - much grander forms of mathematics, none of which were my best subjects. Reading is no longer just from hardcover textbooks but Google Scholar, Wikipedia and a host of search engines. The permission to be creative is relegated to the arts and yet creativity shows a deeper value in development of any of the classes whether task oriented or not.

One of my previous posts asked the questions 'who thought of' and 'who developed' in relation to the immediate needs of blankets and clothing. I ask these questions again in relationship to any piece of technology we use in the present day. Development becomes creativity in action after any question has been posed. In our classrooms, if questions are shunted aside because it does not fit a curriculum creates it's own potential. Snuffing out an idea, putting a period behind a question. 

As a child before school days consume waking hours, creativity is what children do with all manner of games and activities. As a child, listening to trusted adults, the permission to explore the why or how come or an idea may not be given. The exploration can then be toward who will give permission. And some of those may be a marvellous teacher who sees potential and recognizes curiosity an uncle or aunt, a parent or grandparent that shares and works with the spark of enthusiasm, a librarian who redirects a teenager to obscure or maybe more timely writings……. 

Recognizing the spark and nurturing it, whether in ourselves or in a child is one of the lovely responsibilities of life.

“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, 

we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.”

~ Sir Ken Robinson