Do We Need to Foster Creativity in Schools?

Each week, I am a co-moderator of a "state" educational twitter chat. The hashtag is #ALedchat because the other moderator, Holly Sutherland, and I are from Alabama, but we have had participants from all over the world to participate! The chat is from 9-10pmCST, and it's a great way to start the week. The conversation is always positive and it never fails to stretch my thinking each week. I love Monday nights with my Professional Learning Network  - it's a terrific motivator for the week! (You can access all #ALedchat archives by clicking the link in the blog sidebar.)

Last night's chat was titled, "Do We Need to Foster Creativity in Schools?" It was based on a TEDtalk by Sir Ken Robinson (you can watch the video below or click here.)

 

Here are the questions I asked during the chat:

Q1: Why bother? Is it important to our futures that creativity be taught? Why? 

Q2: What do we need to STOP doing in order to foster creativity in schools?

Q3: What do we need to START doing in order to foster creativity in schools?

Q4: Is it enough to focus on the Arts as the source of creativity in schools? (Don’t we do this now?)

Q5: Can a teacher foster creativity if he is not creative himself? How does this affect making good hires?

Q6: How does fear of failure inhibit creativity? Can we impact this by what we do?

Q7: Do our new digital tools inhibit or promote creativity in schools? Explain.

Final Q: What's your take-away from tonight? Your one item on your action plan?

There were some really strong opinions about the topic! At the end of this post you will find the archive from the chat... cleaned up and containing responses without the "side conversations" that can bog people down when learning the flow of a twitter chat. Check out what educators are saying about "Do We Need to Foster Creativity in Schools?"

If you have an opinion and would like to answer any of the questions above, please leave a comment at the end of this post. Feel free to join us on Monday nights as we continue to learn from each other!