CAIRO: There is much to say about the state of the arts and the potential of being perceived as artistic. The extraordinary phenomenon that is the human creative mind is abstract, vast and at the same time distinctive. In saying that, there is the need to harness one's capabilities and there also lies an ethical responsibility to further develop and explore talent. Our education system today boasts academic ability and a vision for an important future. A hierarchy set in place to achieve a future, with subjects pertaining to the arts at the thin end of a structured spectrum: whilst mathematics, science, language and then the humanities all bound up with a higher respectability. In other words most children are-so it seems- somewhat discouraged; steering away from such things of creative stimulation. “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” In saying that, Pablo Picasso must have known of some of the factors that impede, slow down or even eradicate our initial tendency to move abstractly. The keenness to have a go and not be frightened of what other people have to say: even if what you are saying or doing is wrong, is something that adults find extremely difficult. I for one can vouch for that! Playing out one's fantasy and just going for it might seem absurd but it is exactly this level of spontaneity and adventure which is lacking overall in a worldwide school curriculum. If you have ever been told not to study music, for you won't become a musician or even a novelist because your writings might end up on some lonely park bench without a reader, then you are certainly not alone. Sir Ken Robinson's video titled “Is education killing creativity,” really reminded me of people I had met who were-to say the least- amazingly talented and who would shine without inhibition, however sadly weren't in the right jobs or even in properly allocated frameworks; their confident stance and original perspectives were shunned, quite ruthlessly. Sir Ken asks why emphasis is put on literacy as opposed to a natural calling and why the education system starts to teach children from the waist up and then focuses only on their heads and then only one side. “Academic ability has really dominated our view of intelligence and the consequence is that highly talented people think they are not.” Education has become in many opinions like a production machine, where what you put in will ultimately come out as a commodity, an investment typically, to facilitate industry. All the while leaving behind what could have been; wonderfully interactive minds, dynamic and tremendous thought and instead a whole lot of adults not knowing where their talents truly lie. A study from the University of Alabama, U.S. by Barton and Cohen “Classroom Gender Composition and Peer Relations,” examines what is seen as a narrow secular meaning of the word “education” and that future generations will be less predisposed to acts of nature. The study found that overt aggression was on the increase, which is more demonstrative and physical in boys, whereas girls demonstrated a relational aggression which is based on manipulation, intimidation and victimization. These results were linked to the lack of cultural and artistic activities, which according to the study develops positive, emotional and sensitive behavior, through touch and hands on experience. Boys seemed to be more spatial, impulsive and more physical and so they needed to walk around without being made to feel disruptive. “There are those who have to move to think.” The interaction of people should be a celebration of the human imagination and rather, the whole being should be educated. There is an obvious overall ill health of what is being provided in schools and we must collectively rethink what exactly we are educating our children into. Randomness, openness to accident and serendipity are all just small steps on our journey of becoming and as Henri Matisse put it, “An artist should never be prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success.” Humbling thought that. BM
