Be creative

Mums, dads, educators:

Here in Spain many years of rote learning has seriously hindered creative development.  I find it extraordinary that so many marvellous Spanish "creators" have managed to survive the system and still have any creativity left at all. Just think of Picasso, Dali and Míro not to mention the wonderful dancers and musicians like Sara Baras, Maria Serrano, Cortes, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Andres Segovia
Instead of feeling proud of these amazing geniuses,  Spaniards are often heard moaning about "The foclóricos". 

Many consider anything" Made in Spain" to be inferior (except the food).  Anything German is highly recognised or considered real quality.

When you just have to open your eyes and look around any Spanish classroom to see incredible artistic talent often going to waste.

This is so obvious in schools where artistic merit is not at all recognised.

Oh Yes I forgot,  only kids who are capable of memorising everything and then vomitting in back in a ridiculous exam that only tests the lower order thinking skills are "brainy".  The rest well...........

Parents are forced to spend hours slogging over enormously long sums and analysing texts with their kids for homework because that's what good parents do.

But sorry............................... Wouldn't it be more fun to make a model plane or invent a dance or a stupid song or make up a fantasy story where you and they are the hero of course?

 Encourage free thinking and please don't give them all the answers; make them find the facts for themselves

If you think like me then at least we are two weirdos in the world.  At least in the classroom I can do something about it.

He was a pretty average student.