Blog Entry #11: Leaders of the world need an art lesson: A Reflection on "The Arts and Education - Changing Track" by Ken Robinson

Written by: Kia Sta. Ana


As we all know, this was the previous president of the Philippines...

(President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from Google Images)

She was an economist, a professor and a leader.

But did the condition of the Philippines improve during her term? Absolutely not.

Why? Because she wasn't creative. Like the past presidents, she continues to use conventional and predictable ways of solving the country's problems. 

This is exactly what Sir Ken Robinson is saying in his article, "The Arts and Education - Changing Track". In his article, he points out that the arts have been neglected nowadays. People have become so focused on math, sciences and language because they think those are more important. Robinson, however, stresses that the arts are important too; they are the ones that enable a person to think outside the box or think of fresh, creative solutions to any problems. I strongly agree. It is art that triggers all forms of innovation that we see today. Before any math or science is concerned, it is actually the key ingredient that spurs or puts into action any marketing plan, business plan, science experiment or any plan for that matter. For example, Bill Gates, interested in introducing a new line of computers for personal use, used the arts to do so. He created small computers meant for the home, which was a break from the huge business computers that were popular at that time. His utilization of art to create such an innovation was really legendary, because, really, what would we be without personal computers? Probably, our world would have been a slow-growing, traditional world. Communication, technology, businesses and almost everything (since almost everything is run by a computer nowadays) would have been slow.

(Windows computer from Google Images)

However, today, we live in a fast-paced economy. Even Robinson writes that nowadays, there is an economic revolution driven by technology and demography. Demography today drives the economic revolution because of the rapid increase in population and migration. Technology drives the economic revolution because information technology makes the children and teenagers "live in a different world from their parents". As Robinson writes, "they network, communicate, and create online in ways that many adults don’t really understand and often fear." The world is changing and I think we really should update the way we do things. This update should always stem from an idea. This should not be hard when the world has got a multitude of ideas from the minds of people who contribute to the increasing population of the world. Also, since we already know that technology has changed the face of the economy, maybe, we can incorporate technology to fix the problems that our country or the world still has up to now. If one uses art, whether in business, in political or economic projects, or any endeavor for that matter, he would be seen as a greater competition to others because our generation is always concerned with something new or "the next big thing". When I was in Taiwan for my Junior Term Abroad, I kept using Skype, an application that allows you to make video calls, to call my parents in the Philippines. My parents were so enthusiastic and surprised with the concept of Skype and the way it works that we even came across the topic of how this would strongly benefit Overseas Filipino Workers in reaching their loved ones. That made me realize that Skype is successful in bringing the economic world, the cultural world, and the technological world into one. As Robinson writes, "Creativity is about making connections. One of the most important connections we have to make is to see that economic and cultural growth and sustainability are intimately related."

(Skype logo from Google Images)

So if I were the president of the Philippines right now, I would really try to incorporate art into my plan of developing the country. We are in fact a "developing" country, which means we need to develop, change or move on from old practices. We need fresh ideas on how to stop pollution, poverty, crime and corruption. For example, maybe the government can design trash cans similar to the trash can that was made by the Fun Theory organization to encourage people not to litter. We hope current president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, is reading this.

What I realized both from this article is that your creativity is based on what you make of what you have. Elle Woods in the movie "Legally Blonde" once said to Paulette, "You have all the equipment. You just need to read the manual." The same thing goes for the Philippines. We have all the equipment. We have a population of around 90 million people. That's a lot of ideas already. We just need to "read the manual" or interpret them and execute them in a way that will benefit others. If we do, maybe, we can be the next big thing. :)

- Kia S.