Teaching Creativity in British Schools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Teaching Creativity in British Schools - Essay Example Creative Partnerships brings creative professionals into schools to help educators teach creative skills that those professionals believe are valuable in the workplace (Creative Partnerships 2010). In this way, Creative Partnerships hopes to produce students with a passion for learning who are also likely to be hired by companies after graduation (Princewaterhouse Coopers LLP 2010). On the surface, Creative Partnerships seems like an excellent plan. Encouraging children to meet with artists and other creative practitioners from the workplace would encourage them to study harder and explore their skills to find out in which ways they could succeed too. However, as this report shows, such surface feelings cannot and should not always be taken at face value. Deeper research has dug up a surprising number of flaws and inconsistencies within the Creative Partnerships programme that warrant further investigation. Creative Partnerships was formed in 2002 as a result of the governmental repo rt â€Å"All our Futures†, which was published in 1999 by the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Educations (Creative Partnerships 2010). ... Instead, the authors argue for education that exposes students to creative thinking, which they believe would build a capacity for original thought and translate into life skills for the students. One point of this report which is the cornerstone of the resulting Creative Partnerships project is the idea that creativity is not innate, but can in fact be taught (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education 1999). However, despite their desire to include creativity in the workplace outside of simply exposing students to visual or performance art, this area of the programme has been found to be decidedly lacking (House of Commons Education and Skills Committee 2007). Creative Partnerships is fond of repeating that their programme will bring about economic benefit. Primarily, they cite an â€Å"independent research paper† that found an economic benefit of ?15.30 for every ?1.00 invested in the programme (Creative Partnerships 2010; Princewaterhouse Coopers LLP 20 10). However, it is important to note that while Princewaterhouse Coopers is an independent business entity, the study was paid for by Creativity, Culture and Education, which is the governmental agency responsible for overseeing the Creative Partnerships programme. When statements such as â€Å"this flagship creative learning programme fosters long-term partnerships between schools and creative professionals to inspire, open minds and harness the potential of creative learning† are used to describe the supposedly separate organisation, heavy doubt is cast on the impartiality of the report (Princewaterhouse Coopers LLP 2010, p6). Creative Partnerships is not the only creativity or arts programme recently introduced to the English educational curriculum (Jones & Thomson 2008). However, these