Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Thursday 7 February 2019

Discovering Culture and Creativity in the Aruban Education System

Maastricht – Cultural and Creative Industries as we have discussed Aruba has a financial constraint of been exposed to you. What then?
over the past months have a tremendous opportunity of establishing subsidizing this extra investment in
thriving developments in diverse sectors for Aruba. However, this de- creative classes. How is it in Europe?
velopment should not only be encouraged, it should be taught. From In the background story of the
a young age, we grow, go to school to develop speech skills, hear- In Aruba, we have this popular early beginnings of the CCI, we
ing skills, behavioral skills, thinking skills, but, how about our creative Dutch saying that says “Jong gel- know that it all started to manifest
skills? In the words of Jean Piaget; the goal of education is not to in- eerd, oud gedaan”, which means in the United Kingdom (UK). The
crease the amount of knowledge but to CREATE the possibilities for a that when you teach a child from a UK was one of the first countries to
child to INVENT and DISCOVER, to create people who are capable of young age, this will remain as they drastically change the entire spec-
doing NEW things. Education has a primitive role in shaping our future get older. So, the key message is; trum of CCIs in the economic, cul-
society, in giving our children the tools to survive and thrive in the 21st teach them young! What are the tural, social and educational af-
century. In one of the first columns I brought forward a scientific fact first things we learn when we are fairs. Most policy became culture
that our brains are wired between two major sections; one the ana- children? We learn how to paint, and creativity centered to foster
lytical side, the other a more creative side. Now, the entire discussion we learn to dress our dolls, we learn more changes in the way people
of bridging culture and creativity in the education system argues that colors, we learn role playing, we viewed culture and creativity. Eu-
BOTH sides of the brain should be stimulated. use our imagination. We learn how ropeans are usually known for be-
to listen to music, and how to move ing very cultured societies. Many of
to the beat. Even in our early days the most known artists come from
The Aruban Context our creative side of the brain is the these European countries, and
Aruba like many other countries provides all levels of education, first to get stimulated. But as we the majority of their people have
from the kindergarten all the way up to the University of Aruba. The get older, society determines that grown an appreciation for their
Aruban education system is a unique case and now it is becoming only the analytical side is impor- art. People from other parts of the
more accommodating by becoming one of the first national multi- tant. We don’t want unbalanced world travel to visit museums that
lingual educational systems in our region. In the last decades Aruba people in the society. Imagine that contain their arts pieces.
has introduced creative classes as part of the high school curriculum, the talents you are born with, the
where they can receive dance, arts and music classes for a minimum talent you are meant to develop in The UK has been successful in
amount of hours a week. In my research, which I conducted in 2018, I life comes from the creative side of bringing this shift in the society,
noticed a lot of discrepancies in the space and materials there were your brain, but your entire life you that other countries such as Aus-
in these schools. Certain schools had more privileges and teachers have been taught to only value tralia and other European coun-
had more to work with than others. This unequal situation drastical- the analytical side. What then? tries have also adapted their edu-
ly influences the equal opportunities of our students to receive the Or, you are gifted in the analytical cation system in attempts to shape
same level of creative classes. This for sure has a lot to do with the side, but complementary aspects these children to attain more cre-
fact that Aruba has a scarcity in teachers, and automatically that from the creative side have never ative skills. Back in the day when
the industrialization era was popu-
lar, the economy was seeing for
handy people that could work and
produce mass amounts at a time.
Their opinion was not needed, their
intelligence was not asked for, their
talent was not interested in. But
now, this has changed, so why has
the way we teach our children not
changed? Why is the importance
fixed on how good they can mem-
orize something, or how well they
do on a test? I am not indicating
that this system is broken, or that
memorizing pieces of text is bad.
What I am saying, is that creativ-
ity is EQUALLY as important in the
times we are living in.

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