NO CREATIVES IN THE LIBRARY

So I just read an article entitled ‘Education kills creativity’. A title chosen, no doubt, for its eye catching nature. Most people have undergone some form of formal education, and many people fancy the idea of creativity. Moreover, it seems a consensus that the two are almost opposite to each other – chalk and cheese, oil and water, a KKK leader and this young fellow.

However. Maybe it’s because I love a lively debate, or because I always find myself rooting for the underdog, or because I genuinely believe this to not be the case, but I’m gonna have to disagree. Most likely it’s a mixture of them all, but I’d like to just put this out there – I’d have a lot more respect for an intelligent creative than a stupid one.

Now, I understand how the two can appear to be polar opposites. One imagines creativity to come from some kind of fiery, burning core within them, and education to reside in dusty books on library shelves, and in the lecture notes of equally dusty lecturers. But the very first idea was born from some combination of things that were learned – ‘taught’ to you from the outside world, received by your senses. To be educated is simply to be taught – to learn. And it only follows that the more that is learned, the greater the pool from which a marvellous, shiny stroke of creative brilliance can emerge.

In short, I don’t think that education kills creativity. I think it feeds it.