The topic is brought by a significant debate formulated by Ken Robinson: Is the modern academic system undermining  human creativity? It seems to be a fair realization that the majority of academic institutions, encompassing all educational levels, from elementary schools to post-secondary faculties, prioritize mathematics and linguistic studies over the arts and sports. I most definitely relate with Robinson’s statement that human knowledge is distinct and complementary, that is, the development of each of these capacities is of equal importance and, therefore, should not be hierarchically structured.

Almost immediately it appears that the emphasis should be placed on refocusing the way children are educated in most academic systems around the world, for they bear that very crucial cognitive absorbance that adults seem to rapidly loose, and carry, at the same time, that inherent creativity ready to be stimulated in different activities. Let us not forget that scientific and linguistic studies also promote a degree of creativity but they do not fully dimensionalize it. This can be personally accounted during my engineering studies at university, where the academics solely focused on the very technical aspect of it, completely neglecting the social, artistic, emotional, physical and linguistic capabilities. The only reason why I nonetheless kept studying that, was simply because I love the subject and find it almost necessary for our future. But also because I found my own ways to complement my education in the other realm, by learning a new language and keeping musically involved, even if if was not within “academic standards”. I remember that even as a kid, I would undermine the importance of art classes myself despite my great interest in drawing. This was clearly a culturally-learned misconception of the hierarchical nature of human knowledge. 

I always come to think about the great minds of the Renaissance when talking about the interrelationship of human abilities. Without the modern technological distractions, most of the remarkable individuals of the time, such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael,  were not artists, or engineers, or doctors, but to some extend, all of which at the same time. Their interests and creativity were not bound by the standards of academic institutions, but activated by the very interdisciplinary dynamics of their abilities. I believe we have to really look back in time and attempt to shake the foundations of our current uni-dimensional educational systems and, as Robinson stated, “reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity”.