In America one of the biggest concerns that few are speaking about is the loss of creativity in our students. Cutbacks in school funding across the nation has caused the end of band, art and shop programs. Add to this failure to stimulate the minds and hands of our youth the invasive predominance to play video games over other social or creative activities and the future innovators in America look scares and bleak.
Of course this is hardly an event that is isolated to America alone. Across Europe and in England similar combinations of obsessive game play and re-orienting of curricular schedules is becoming the norm, though in far lesser degrees. But unlike in America some educators and creative competitions are not giving up the ghost yet.
This is something that I think we need to pay attention to. One of the best solutions I’ve heard in some time hails from Britain. It is a combination of providing the youth with a creative spirit and feeding their need to be digital.
In Neath and Port Talbot there is the Fitchett and Woollacott Student Woodworking Competition. This competition is open to teenagers from 11 to 18 that have made woodworking projects.
Teachers are able to submit the handicraft of the labor of these nimble minds, and the students are the one that can gain the double bonus of winning. The winners’ school will be the recipient of specialized woodworking tools to further enhance their creative outlet, and those of future generations. But that is not the only prize. The winning students will also gain something as grand as being acknowledged for their efforts. They stand to win a popular and oh so must have iPod or Wii gaming console.
I love this idea. The children are getting what they want while gaining something far more important and life changing in the process. This is the kind of stimulus our children in America need. It’s the kind of education that America must have, and in a decade or less will be screaming for. So let’s be proactive.
No Child Left Behind is a failure. Rote memorization is fantastic for zombies and robots, but does nothing for the inventive spirit that has led America to lead the world in technology and economics, to say nothing of freedom. Britain has given America many things over the years, from items to intangible ideas. I think this idea is just one more that I feel we need to integrate.
Do you agree? Is this the kind of education you want your child to get? Or can you improve on the Brits?
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