Creativity in Education

[BARNETT WEISS]

Dear Adam:
  First Let me ask if anyone is interested in what we are speaking about here and if they are, I request that they simply e-mail me a yes so that I can be sure that a goodly number of people are actually reading these posts even though there are only about a dozen people who write on any regular basis THANK GOD!!
  NOW to the topic:
   
  As John Gatto long ago pointed out in his first book Dumbing Us Down and most thoroughly in his latest book availale in a more condensed version than this one,         The Underground History Of American Education: A Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation Into The Problem Of Modern Schooling By John Taylor Gatto by Author's Special Pre-Publication Edition (Paperback - 2001)    6 Used & new from $48.25 which chronicles so thoroughly the beginning of public education, the intention of schooling has not been to instill a love of learning or creativity or critical thinking. It is meant to produce followers who will submit to the will of the oligarchy who established public mandatory schooling in order to obtain a more highly educated work force and middle management group who would be subservient to the needs of the upper classes and thus solidify their position.  It has worked magnificently and continues to do so.  
   
  Revolutionaries such as Sir Robinson are dangerous to that intent and will be squashed accordingly in the long run unless they find a way to enroll the public without making the existing system wrong. I also think that they are wrong headed as the real need is for connection and community building rather than stressing creativity. Of course this can be a matter of both and !!
   
  I don't think this revolutioinary aspect and its consequences leading to defeat have been clearly understood.  Success in the long run will come as a consequence of learning how to join a group before attempting to lead it somewhere without losing your own integrity. The old addage is ride the horse in the direction it is going and it will hit the wall and have to turn around or it will eventually accept your lead when if feels you joining it first. 
   
  This is the main principal of Aikido which when introduced by Morihei Ueshiba, a 10 degree master of all the martial arts at that time, was totally revolutionary. He would have been a psychodramatist supreme.  He retired from the martial arts for some time going on retreat as he was disturbed by the basic principals of all the martial arts to that point which were about destroying the opponent. He felt that this was against the basic principals of the Universe and came back with Aikido which has as it's basic principal to join with what you perceive as the opponent who is after all yoursself whom you hve distanced yourself from. Once having joined him, then his energy and yours can accomplish real movement.
   
  I think that people like Ron Clark www.ronclark.com have fully understood this principle and are not railing against the deficits of our present educational institutions. Instead, Clark has worked within them using their own principles and created success beyond anything ever seen before and that includes the continuing work of James Comer, MD begun in 1968 in which he assisted to begin with in transforming the 10 worst schools in New Haven failing on all counts to the best 10 schools in New Haven in 5 years by creating community within the schools and not changing anything having to do with the corriculum. He brought parents and teachers together along with the community as partners in a way never done before and it worked to say the least.  
   
  Clark does this as well as bringing industry together with these as well. 
   
  The folks who composed the book Cradle to Cradle are doing it in their own way as well and were able to get me to reconsider working together with horrendous companies like Disney, Nike, and Ford to achieve real change. 
   
  I think Moreno understood this and did not have a good way to approach it despite his intention and genius.  Many of us have attempted and continue to apply his methods in the school systems. While we have some sporadic success of some kind, much of the surge which occurred back in the late 50s early 60s has subsided though I wouldn't argue with Tom about it for long.  
   
  I think we are fighting a kind of losing battle with these tools alone especially as most people are really not fully aware of how to use them well despite the attempts to standardise the training. Moreover, it is damn hard and most people are not interested in social change. Instead they are interested in making a living similar to those persons enrolling in Social Work School who basically desert the social change arm of their education in favor of doing therapy and basically one to one therapy as it pays better and you can keep you client base longer. ( See the Power Tactics of Jesus Christ by Jay Haley.  still one of the finest pieces of writing about the therapeutic arena's trap.) . 
   
  All of Moreno's methods are basically revolutionary on the face of them. Sociometry is too democratic for our school systems which are based on heirachy of power for the reasons stated above. You cannot bring psychodrama or sociodrama into the classroom without being a revolutionary either; that is except to gain some control over the disruptive elements in order to manipulate them into submission once again. 
   
  For all of the enormity of Boal's work, I am not at all clear that it has made much of a difference in the educatonal systems of Brazil. Power politics coming back to the people through their election of Lula as well as the election of so many from the left in the Latin American Countries especially with the power that Chavez has mustered is having a certain effect. That is at least until our country's power base finds a way to dethrone them all. 
   
  Not a very pleasant post I must admit. Still, there are openings and communication about these through the Internet just as we are doing now that did not exist before to reach large numbers without the permisson of the Oligarchy. So far, this medium remains available for these "creative sortees." I pray and work to see that it does continue. 
   
  My take on these matters. Blessings, Bud



Adam Blatner <adam at blatner.com> wrote:
  I received this through the drama therapy list. (Once again, I want to build bridges 
among the AATE, ATHE, IDEA, drama therapy, psychodrama, expressive arts, and related 
communities).
It features Sir Ken Robinson who lectures about the importance of creativity in 
education. It is approximately 20 minutes long, but worth checking out. Here is a 
description:
Sir Ken Robinson_ (http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/69) makes an 
entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures 
creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson
> points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the 
> talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," 
> Robinson says.
(http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66)


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