Elephant in the Room

Putting on my hat as co-founder of The Chase, I’ve witnessed at first hand the growth of the creative industries in this country, which I’m told currently contribute £92b to the UK economy and is still growing at twice the rate of the rest of the economy.

Putting on my hat as part time professor at the University of Central Lancashire, I have seen industry benefit enormously from the steady stream of creative talent that design courses produce.

Twelve years ago, George Cox concluded in his report to government that design and creativity were the UK’s best weapon to take on the challenge from the emerging economies.

Putting on my bonnet, with a bee in it, I ask what does creativity have to do to be taken seriously in education? Thirty years ago film director Alan Parker wrote an article on the subject which he titled, ‘Slightly below woodwork.’ Have attitudes really changed since then?

I believe that as an area of study creativity, both as a craft and a problem solving process, is at least as important as maths and science in the development of schoolchildren and ultimately to the prosperity of the nation as a whole. Why can’t the Department of Education see what appears to be so glaringly obvious?
Discuss.

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