Have you heard Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk on Schools Kill Creativity? It’s fantastic: he makes a strong case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than disables) creativity.

He contends that all children have tremendous creative talent and the educational system squanders that talent by educating children to become good workers rather than creative thinkers.  He suggests that the child’s tendency to have a go and try things out is an important cornerstone for original thinking but, as the school system’s relentless focus is on finding the “right answer”,  this behaviour is unlearnt.

He argues that it also seems to be the case that, within the educational system, maths and science are valued over and above arts and humanities. And therefore, it may be that a child’s natural talent (e.g. art, music, dance) is not deemed suitable or worthy of nurturing and developing.

According to Sir Ken, creativity should be as important as literacy within the curriculum and we need to re-think the fundamental principles on which we educate our children.

Another Ken, Ken Wantanabe, a former management consultant with McKinsey Consulting, has come up with an innovative response to this problem. In 2007 Japan’s prime minister made education the country’s top agenda item in particular moving from a “memory focused education” to a “problem solving focused education”. Ken Wantanabe’s book Problem Solving 101 was written to support Japan’s children in learning how to problem solve. The book has been an enormous success (and not just for children). It became a best seller for adults in Japan and internationally.(It’s due for release here in July/August 09). For further infomation on Ken Wantanabe’s ideas and some problem solving challenges you can try our yourself please click on his website www.problemsolvingtoolbox.com/

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