Ken Robinson is one of the leading voices in education today and has done some fascinating research on how schools actually kill creativity. In this video, he covers a lot of ground in a relatively short period. Lots of breadth and more room to drill down in specific areas. Still the broad contours of his research is most provocative.
He discusses divergent thinking which is an aspect of creativity. He points to longitudinal research in Breakpoint and Beyond that reveals that 98 % of Kindergarten children scored in the genius level. They retested the same children 5 years later, then a further 5 years and the scores steady declined. The point is that we all have this capacity and it mostly deteriorates precisely at the time when kids are in school. While correlation is not causation, it is useful to ask some critical questions of school.
Interestingly, he argues that current model of schooling is based on an industrial paradigm ill suited to a post-industrial world.