Our Asian adventure is about to begin. On Wednesday we fly off to Malaysia, where we'll be conducting workshops for primary, high school students, as well as teachers in Penang. We'll be giving them a taste of creative thought and expression through our 'World of Paper'. Exploring creativity is moving beyond the expected and into a space of novelty and uncharted territory.
After Malaysia, we'll be working ion Singapore at the Nanyang University for a few weeks. The purpose is to inspire creativity amongst students, faculty and small business start-ups. (You can read my previous post here when this work was first commissioned). After Singapore we are scheduled to explore Bali for a few weeks.
But let's discuss the creative process and reflect on the archaic educational system that still exists in most countries today. Universities and educational institutions that are worth their weight are starting to realise that a new approach is desperately needed. According to research (Watch Sir Ken Robinson's take on this here!) about 70% of jobs in the next twenty years, don't exist yet. So what does this mean in real terms? It means that we need to stimulate a new way of thinking and problem solving in our youth. Often our natural-born talents are ignored and the creativity that we may develop when we are young, gets forgotten as we are molded by our educational institutions. These skills will be most important, if we are going to be able to cope with an unknown future that faces us. So we have to encourage our youth to find their talent and passion and really nurture these soft skills to enable themselves to think creatively. What we are trying to do is harness these often-lost talents and assist our students in re-discovering their own natural creativity. Stay tuned to my Asian reports from next week!
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