Saturday, June 9, 2012

GENIUS - is in the eye of the beholder... EDUCATION takes a HIT when they dismantle the ARTS!

I am an educator.
I am a psychotherapist.
I am a certified school counselor.
I am a voice teacher.
I am a seminar leader.
I have worked in education most of my life.

First, let me say, this post is not a rant about teachers. In fact, so many teacher friends of mine are retiring, because they are FED UP with the protocol (mandated via state directives) for which they are are expected follow... they have lost their ability to deliver creativity in their teaching methods. They are bound by TESTS - TESTS - TESTS and truthfully, just want to creatively teach children.

It amazes me that in our western society today, creativity is being ERASED from the educational process...

Never mind that in the State of Texas,  Orchestra, Choir and Band students have consistently scored in the 97-98-99th percentiles on the SAT for years and years and years!!!

It is a bummer that our government education system and policy makers of today cannot see the benefit in the arts. (That is why I am addicted to TED Talks where creative and brilliant minds are interacting...)

Below is a fabulous video about a young savant who is a musical genius.
Derek is British.
Derek cannot count three fingers when asked, yet his hands effortlessly move across the keyboard in perfect tune with advanced harmonic structure and stunning rhythmic cadence.

You will be amazed and touched by this video of a pervasive developmental DISORDERED young man who is in my eyes is a  pervasively developmentally ORDERED young man - his ORDER comes via the ARTS!

IMAGINE THAT!?!!!

Watch this - watch all of this - you will be amazed and touched!


And, Derek... finds connectivity to people via his music! How cool is that?!!

Humans may not all fit in the same peg hole.
We may not all be the norm.
After all, the norm is AVERAGE... and we are not all AVERAGE...
Isn't it sad that this is exactly how we are teaching our children these days, via testing for NORMED data..
expecting all students to *fit* in the NORM... But, GENIUS looks different on different people.

The education system says: let's norm all the data. Let's figure out how most normal people should collect knowledge, and NORM it for all children and all teens.  Let's expect those individuals who are GENIUS and  those who are thought of as "learning disabled" to fit in this picture we've called... NORMAL.
There is another video in which TED Talks speaker, Ken Robinson, speaks to this very topic.
Is Education Killing Creativity?  This is a must watch!

In this video he talks about a little girl named Jillian Lynn - she, too is British!

He says that when she was a little girl (back in the day before we had the ADHD  diagnosis) she was struggling in school and her mother was asked for a teacher conference. The teacher, probably worried for the little girl, encouraged her mother to seek the help of a "specialist" - so she did.
After visiting with little Jillian, the specialist left the room with her mother and turned on some MUSIC -
and Jillian moved around the room - then the specialist told her mother,

"Your little girl is not *sick* - your little girl is *a dancer*" - I just LOVE those WORDS!

So mom took Jillian to ballet school and she went on to perform with the Royal Ballet and on to start a professional dance company, then hooked up with Andrew Lloyd Webber and choreographed "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera" and is today a millionaire!!!  A Great Story about Success!

Ken's video is well worth your time to watch all the way through.... Ken Robinson is spot on about education and the arts!


Let's all speak up for the ARTS!

Together we can bring back the ARTS into schools and funding. It just breaks my heart when I see people tagged as *disabled* when in truth... they are *differently-abled* - I hope we can change the NORM of thinking that all people should fit in the NORM BOX!

Thanks for reading my ramblings...

Hip - Hip - Hooray for the ARTS!!!

La - Ti - Do!!

Jeanne

Go do something artsy today and find YOUR peace!! Discover YOUR GENIUS!

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