Education, Volunteering and Creativity

I get pretty immersed in an issue when we’re putting it together. The recent August issue of IBM Systems Magazine, Power Systems edition, is still swimming in my head. The feature about education options for employees, the question of the month about volunteering and the references in Dashboard and Data Display to creativity are swirling into some thoughts about our education system.

When I was in school, it was all about achievement and standing out. It was a constant struggle to be the best of the class. I was in a nontraditional private school, which may have made a difference, but we were taught to strive to be the best at something. It was a badge of honor when you succeeded.

Long after my own formal education, I discovered a change in education strategy from a group of teenage girls I mentored. I was shocked to find out they were encouraged not to stand out. The emphasis in classrooms was on teamwork and collaboration. What struck me about this was the girls’ common lack of leadership desire or ability. They were taught not to stand out, not to lead. Blend in. Work together. Don’t take over a project. My initial reaction was, are we raising a generation of mediocre contributors?

An article, The Classroom in 2020, from Forbes.com seems to reinforce that idea but takes it even further. It talks about the end of classrooms as we know them. No more lectures. No more tests. Instead, students will collaborate on problem-solving tasks. The goal is to promote innovation.

One of the reasons for the change, according to the article, has to do with creativity. It states:

Educators have long seen a paradox: Children enter school with innate creativity but rarely leave that way. Sir Ken Robinson, a British researcher, illustrates this with a study of 1,600 children between the ages of 3 and 5. Tested on their ability to think divergently--generating ideas by exploring many possible solutions, a key to innovation--98% scored at genius level. Ten years later the same children were given the same test; only 10% scored at genius level.

A recent CEO study by IBM shares that CEOs value creativity above other character traits. Will this new strategy in education preserve that naturally occurring quality in children throughout their schooling years?

I don’t have the answers. In fact, I may just have more questions. Will a collaborative learning environment preclude producing leaders? Are collaborators more valuable to business than leaders, or vice versa? Can we somehow allow both groups to flourish instead of forcing kids one way or the other? How can we preserve the creativity we’re born with and not squash it as we force children into the education mold?

We’ll need both leaders and collaborators in the future. Both skill sets are valuable. And I’m all for cultivating and encouraging creativity. I think we’ll all agree that learning is important to these ideas, but I’m guessing opinions on the topic will diverge wildly. Maybe in our collaborative idea sharing, a creative idea will emerge as a leader.

 

P.S. I just found this article, Why You Must Network With Your Younger Employees, with an interesting chart comparing Boomers, GenXers and Millennials in such areas as problem solving, decision-making and learning style. Some in the comments section are taking exception with its generalizations. I have to say, I fall pretty nicely in my GenX column.