Happy Lutheran

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

I loved this video–it is a little long [around 20 minutes], but Ken Robinson is really funny, and the argument is very interesting.  He argues that we need to do much more to faciliate creativity in education, rather than trying to make everyone conform to one specific outcome, using only one type of curriculum. 

Here is the part that I especially liked:  he said that basically what we do in our educational system is train university professors; and, one of the big problems with university professors is that they live in their heads, and treat their bodies as little more than the means to move their head from one place to another!  What this has meant for our educational system is that we educate primarily from the “waist up,” and, more particularly, just one side of the brain.  Why is it, he asks, that almost universally, school systems teach math every day of the week, but not dance?  And, more importantly, what does that mean for the children who are particularly gifted in dance, but not particularly gifted in math?

As Christians, who celebrate the unique and different gifts of each member of the body of Christ, and also who celebrate the inherent goodness and giftedness of our physical bodies, we should find this problematic.  Certainly at least part of what it means to be created in the image of God is to participate in God’s creative activity–in our minds and our bodies–in math and in dance.  All children, and especially children in the church, need to get that message.