I used to be left at home as a kid with my mum while my dad was out at work and all my siblings were in school. I remember being in a world all my own and looking for things to do to occupy myself. I remember getting an old clock to work again after dismantling it and fiddling with it for awhile.

I also remember the miniature “sail cars” that I used to built from cannibalized toys. The sail would usually just be a piece of paper held upright in place by a stick. Sometimes I would use those plastic windmills or propellers in place of these paper sail to power these sail cars of mine. The wheels would come from dismantled Matchbox Superfast cars, and the chasis of my sail cars would be made from empty boxes. They would be held together by rubber bands or glue.

I had hours of fun building different sail cars and racing one against another on the floor of my apartment house. The wind would come from the direction of the balcony. I would build different configurations to see what will make my sail cars move faster. I would try with paper sails or switch to plastic propellers. I would change the wheels and “chassis” to see which chassis is more stable to support the sail or fan.

Looking back I think those were wonderful learning moments for me. I was faced with a problem and had to solve it through some creative thinking. I don’t think I had learned about “center of gravity” but I knew it intuitively through trying to get a stable sail car. I learned something about “harnessing the energy of the wind” even though such words perhaps didn’t exist in my vocabulary. “Creativity” wasn’t a word to me either.

I learned science without a textbook. I explored things. I explored ideas. I learned to be creative through play. I was learning as learning should be done. It was fun and natural, and very importantly, meaningful. Meaningful without having to memorize definitions of concepts like “wind power” or “energy”.

Parents and teachers can do a lot to encourage such curiosity among by providing them with opportunities with do-it-yourself projects. Give them a free reign. Don’t even designate these DIY projects as a “Science project” or a “Mathematics Project”. Don’t attach labels to them. You may  insist that their project must not have electronic parts. Leave it to the kids to share something that interest them. Do you think learning in schools can be like this? For parents, it is a great way to wean your kids off the computers and video games.

A friend recently shared a video on Facebook purportedly of a flash mob doing dancing in the middle of Raffles Place, the heart of Singapore’s financial district. I commented that it was not a true flash mob as I lacked spontaneity as the dance was clearly choreographed. I also suggested that it was typically Singaporean, that is, we don’t seem to know when to be spontaneous. Spontaneity had to be choreographed and organized it seems over here.

This reminded me of another occasion when I experienced this utter lack of spontaneity among Singaporeans. It happened a few years ago while I was still with the Ministry of Education (MOE). The MOE was organizing an international conference on ICT use for education. As part of the conference, there was a chance for some young Singapore teenagers from a well-known school to perform using Creative Technology’s digital musical equipment. I happened to be there at a rehearsal at Suntec City. The performance was musically great only thing was that all the teenage school student musicians were not even smiling, or even moving their bodies. They were out of synch with the music. I recall telling them to lighten up and smile to no effect.I remember remarking to my boss, “It is sad when our education system produces kids who don’t know how to enjoy themselves.” As I recall the actual performance was of the same quality.

Creative Technology which produced those digital musical instruments once tried to introduce its Zen MP3 player in a most uncreative manner. In the TV advert we are shown a scene showing a traditional Chinese scholar in full traditional Chinese scholar garb, trying to remember. The Zen which was a portable MP3 player was linked to something so outdated and out of synch with what an MP3 player is used for. Compare this with Apple’s iPod advert when it was introduced. Apple was targeting a lifestyle while Creative Technology was targeting Chinese culture by associating “Zen” with traditional Chinese scholarship? You get the picture.

Today, I came across an interesting write-up about creativity. Looking at the ideas described in the article, I wonder if these ideas can be incorporated into the Singapore education system. Joey Reiman, CEO of BrightHouse, an Atlanta-based innovation consulting firm said:

“The five last bastions of thinking are the car, the john, the shower, the church or synagogue, and the gym.”

He believes that people should be “encouraged to visit a spot conducive to reflection and let their neurons rip.” Now where do you find that in schools? Even in subject areas where creativity is supposed to be key as in art, music and literature (and dare I add the sciences?), creativity is not prized as highly as meeting the examinations requirement of the subjects. Business-like KPIs add further nails to the creativity coffin in schools. Can we imagine an award like Maddock Douglas‘ annual Fail Forward award, which is designed to celebrate endeavors both ambitious and disastrous in schools in Singapore?

Not likely. Not likely in an environment where there is one right answer for everything. Anything else is marked with a red cross. Not likely where rote-learning is the norm. Not likely where conformity and rules are over-emphasised.

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I came across a list of traits that creative people should possess. While studying the traits listed I wondered whether such traits would be welcome in schools as we traditionally know them today. Will schools be able to cope with such people? More specifically, will schools in Singapore ensure that the nurturing of creative people become one of its hallowed goals?

Singapore schools have long prided itself on an examination-centric system and also on characteristics like team work and discipline. The last two often are just an euphemisms for rigid and unquestioning conformity. The examination-centric approach is never healthy for the kind of divergent thinkers, non-conformists, the imaginative and the severely critical, traits that usually characterize the creative. Neither is the mis-emphasis on team work and discipline

Will schools in Singapore be able to recreate the school environment to encourage such traits? How do schools create an environment where habits of minds related to creativity like persistence, intuitiveness, adaptability, tolerance to ambiguity and even risk-taking? What must schools in Singapore give up before such traits can be seriously nurtured?