Principal Thoughts

If you haven’t seen Sir Ken Robinson’s now famous talk on whether schools kill creativity it’s worth checking out. 10 years after it we still espouse the industrial age model of education although we are trying to change it in Ireland with the efforts to try and bring in some elements of the new Junior Cert.

Creativity matters so much because it is brings us to life, it’s what inspires us! Music, Art, Literature ultimately all serve to enhance our lives and not just in terms of entertainment but in very real terms.

Have you heard of the Mozart Effect, it’s a study done on students who were played certain classical pieces, recorded at about 60 beats per minute, and which found makes students felt calmer, helps them study longer and have a higher rate of retention (as well as earning better grades according to their teachers.)

Or do you know that the idea for the first mobile phone came from the head of Motorola watching Captain Kirk’s ‘communicator’ shown on the original 1960’s Star Trek TV show!

You probably do know that the first helicopter and tank were designed from drawings done by Leonardo da Vinci.

Creativity matters because it imbues us with problem-solving skills, innovative mindsets, communicative attitudes and inspiration. It matters because  it reminds you that you are alive. In Steve Jobs autobiography he mentions that he found it amazing Apple’s best engineers and designers were all accomplished artists or musicians.

We have viewed education as a knowledge based purpose since the industrial age, and knowledge still has huge value, but in an era where there is more information available from the small device most of us carry around in our hands than all the great libraries of Alexandria we need to focus instead on how we can inspire creativity to make something!