Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Dr Ken Robinson's monolog on Ted.com is a rather interesting and often funny response to education, but it is also in many ways an unfair representation of today's educational system. I admit to laughing at times, but I also found myself being insulted at times. In the end, I wasn't sure if I was more amused or insulted.
Our educational system (at least in this country) has made many strides in the last 15 years. Recognition of multiple intelligences is just one of them. The system has begun to look at new ways of supporting learning and learning styles. In fact, if you wait a day or less.... a new paper will be published with a new way to teach children. In many ways, I feel that the system as gone too far in trying to find new and innovative ways to teach. The focus on fundamental skills in math and reading has been lost to the idea of kinder and less threatening learning. Reciting math facts and/or spelling in front of the class is now considered to stressful for fragil egos and so the skills work has been dropped from our curriculum. With these changes, out country's education system has lost it superiority in the world. Maybe we need to reconsider going back to the basics. We can still use the things we have learned about teaching, but without forgetting the hard lessons we learned along the way. I do not believe that stressing basic skills development damages creativity. The US did it for decades and managed to land on the moon. Creativity can remain despite structured learning.
There were two pieces of the video that I found very insightful though. The first was the comment that young children are often willing to try even if they do not know the answer. They are not afraid to be wrong. Trying and failing is still allowed. That is soemthing I think schools need to teach our students more carefully. It is okay to make mistakes as long as you are trying. If we teach our children its bad to make a mistake then they may be afraid to try. Smoe of our greatest achievements have involved failure. It was okay to fail 10,00 times to make a light bulb as long as Edison kept trying until he got 1 right.
The second note that I really like was the comment about how we treat kids with different learning styles or disabilities today. The idea that one of the world's greatest dancers might have been medicated and told to relax is scary, but all to often the easiest solution. Kids need to be understood and accepted as they are. Then we can learn to teach who they are. My experience is that most of who they are is what the adults in their life have created. True issues are issues our society has created in the child. Sometimes its a genius we do not recognize that a parent has nurtured and sometimes its a disability that adults have instilled. Sometimes its just who the child is. Understand it first, then maybe we can understand how best to teach the child. And maybe all it takes is dance school.