Conquista - The Cycling Quarterly Issue 5 | Page 9

There is an established pecking order and it looks something like: Maths at the top,
then Science and Languages, then the Humanities. Somewhere down the bottom
we find the Arts. And within the Arts, Fine Art is given higher status than Music
and Dance. Children at school are discouraged from “wasting their time” on such
“trivialities” and are instead encouraged to try harder at the subjects which “you will
get a job doing”. Sir Ken argues that we systematically educate creativity out of kids.
Let’s say that again: We teach kids to be less creative. Speaking in his famous TED
talk in 2006 he claimed, “all kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them,
pretty ruthlessly”. He argues creativity in education should have the same status as
literacy. We agree.
If you are not prepared to risk being wrong, it’s pretty likely you will never come
up with anything original. By the time we become adults we are terrified to ever
be wrong. Companies are run like this. Failure is stigmatised. A mistake is the worst
thing you can make. The result is dreary, monotonous, samey averageness. Picasso
said all children are born artists. Where do they all go?
With more stuff available to look at and more stuff available to read than ever
before, we are pretty damn pleased you took the time to look at our pictures and
read our stories. If you like what we do please share it with your friends and get
in touch. Share your images and stories with us. We strive to celebrate the best
of photography and writing. Giving a platform for new talent as well as more
established journeymen. We can’t put everything in the magazine, but we have
endless opportunities through our website and social media channels, and we
want you to make them all buzz. You never know, you might rediscover that inner
creativity deep down inside that’s been struggling to find an outlet.
Keep ‘er lit.

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