Creativity and Education

I was reading a blog today http://people.goshen.edu/~marvinpb/arted/tc.html#top
I found this piece by Marvin Bartel and wanted to share.

Teaching Creativity.... Text and photography © Marvin Bartel, Ed.D.
	updated November, 2, 2013 author biography

The above illustration is typical of a kindergarten child's uninhibited pre schematic drawing of herself.  Most five year olds are totally confident that they can draw, sing, and dance.  Tragically, within three or four years this child, if she is typical, will experience a crisis of confidence.  She will no longer feel competent or creative.  As teachers, we are often partly to blame for the diminished inclination to be creative as children become socialized and more intelligent.
WHY CARE ABOUT IT
I write this as an art teacher for other art teachers. It is the hardest, but most important piece to write. It easily turns into a book-length piece. There are so many things to consider. Yet I want to keep it as brief and consice as I possible. I believe so much the world needs more and more compassionate creativity to solve the many very difficult problems confronting us. Creative people do not have answers, but they habitually wonder. They habitually ask better questions. They have optimism. When combined with empathy and compassion, creativity is bound to be a force for good.
Teaching creativity to everyone is vitally important. If teachers persist in using methods that deny creativity, the brains of the learners are conditioned in the direction of accepting traditional assumnptions and content without the means to question and test for validity and reliablity in today's world. There will always be a creative few who can resist the drill and kill educational methods. But, tragically, when only a few are creative, the balance of power becomes distorted. The majority become impressionalble slaves who can be convinced that their role is serve the creatively inspired experts. When this minority realizes how powerful they are, it can go to their heads. They can too easily take unfair advantage. The results include corruption, misuse of power, prejudice, scarcity, and many other uinimaginable problems.
It just happens that However, I think teachers in every area need to reflect on what they are doing that tends to foster or hinder the creative critical thinking that is so essential as a survival and success skill in today's world.  Creative readers, whatever they teach, will recognize their own lessons and projects in this article. In the development of cognition, the ability to imagine is among the most advanced of all human traits. Why would any teacher want to ignore or even squelch the imagination.