How Sustainability Sparks Innovation and Changes Education

"I wish I could come up with an idea as brilliant as hers, but I'm just not that creative.”

You see, there is a widespread misconception that creativity is something you are born with. Trust me when I say that is not always the case. Creativity is not always something you are born with. In actuality, creativity is a very much teachable skill. It is the end result of a process involving hard work and trial and error. 5% of creativity comes from inspiration or passion, but to reach or achieve something only through hard work can one can that. While some of us do have certain talents, I always tell my students that hard work always wins over talent. Why? Simply because creativity is a matter of trying and trying and trying hard until you get something right and it is not necessarily true that creativity is only associated with arty skills, and I think this is where the misconception is coming from. For example, dancing, singing painting, and performing would require a certain level of talent but don’t you think that even those Artie skills can be learnable?

See, it is possible to become creative at everything that you do, you can be a creative chef, creative stylist, creative engineer, creative mathematician, and you can be a creative teacher. Now when it comes to teaching creativity, quite many people think it can’t be taught, and that’s also not true, what’s true is that you can’t teach creativity through direct instructions for sure. The process of teaching creativity it’s a process of enabling and giving people opportunities, offering encouragement, inspiration, and mentoring as we go. Some teachers are gifted and creative who has been able to help students discover their talents because our job as educators is to instill inspiration in our students by offering different opportunities, ….we never know at what point in that process that creative element in their brain will click and unlock...

When we were young and in the early stages of any child’s school, we used to play, explore, create and be proud of what we do, no right, no wrong, and no pressure!!! But as we move up in the education system…. what happens? We begin sitting in a classroom, in a factory-style, one-way conversation, we become serious, and we learn to get the correct answer. We all pursue the same fields of study at the same time, and we start competing for the same majors in universities. In the future, we will continue to compete for the same jobs, just like the generation before us. Therefore, there needs to be a change in the way we facilitate learning.

So, with so much going on in the globe, including climate change, conflicts, poverty, and so on, sustainability is a hot topic. Sustainable practices are being prioritized by educational institutions, as well as large companies, corporations, and individuals. Astonishingly, topics about sustainable goals that are covered in the curriculum have been shown to inspire and support creativity. Educating a generation that is well-versed in the UNSDGs proves to improve our prospects as humans of preserving our planet's natural resources, as more community needs are being met. These days, tools like Roblox, Minecraft Education, and other apps are used in schools to encourage students to come up with original ideas and solutions. Students use them in all different disciplines to build solutions for UNSDGs such as the long walk in English Literature, food waste in science, rethinking plastic in entrepreneurship, and clean energy in the environment).