This is my call to all educators and creatives.
It is time we merge creativity and education with clear intent. This is an invitation to create conversation, discuss and brainstorm to define “creative”, “education” and “clear intent”. Think about what these terms mean when clubbed together in various permutations and combinations. Take action to bring effective change in education systems.
Do it local. Do it global.
Not adding more terms deliberately to think about, but——
make learning creative, ethical, critical, applied and interactive. Whether it is in school, at home, work organisation or online, make it fun for everyone. Make our creation mindful and conscious. Whether it is books, art, or comedy, make it educative if we must. Make consumers of your creative work purposefully curious.
If you are wondering why I want to do this—— if this is my passion? No. Maybe.
This is personal.
More personal to my core identity. It comes from my place of privilege despite belonging to a socially discriminated community. The privilege many are not born with but sometimes are lucky enough to earn—— a “proper English education” at school.
I was exposed to an immersive English education from the first day of school. I have been told by my teachers and peers that I have a good grasp of English. And that I am blessed with creativity too. It gave me confidence in school. All my books, classes, homework, classwork, assignments—— everything was in English. It was the medium of instruction at school.
I was a silent, mostly studious child, interested in learning. Do you know why? I was taught “proper English” by amazing teachers who made learning fun. Their resourcefulness and creative lessons, with very strict grammar lessons of course, propelled my interest in learning. I was equipped with a second language by the time I turned seven years old. I became bilingual. I understood my books and classes, and thankfully, one of my parents knew English to help me with my education.
Outside school and on the internet, I had access to so much more information because I knew English. I read books from other countries translated in English. I watched movies and TV shows in English. I heard songs of American and English bands who made it to the global charts, I wouldn’t know local ones. I wrote blogs, essays, articles, poems in English.
I connected with people who did not speak Hindi, my first language. I made friends in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka when I lived there, states in southern India. I did that because I knew English and others around me knew English. We did not know each other’s first language well, but we all knew English.
This initiative is very close to my heart.
The English language brought me to Cambridge. A place where you need a 7.5 IELTS score in all your sections (listening, speaking, reading, writing) as a prerequisite to get an unconditional offer.
Most high-ranking universities in the world need a high score on your English language assessment. The same tests that cost about £150 to non-native English speakers to prove their English proficiency. Just to be considered for an admission. You do not need to do this if you are from an English-speaking country. Or if you have studied at an institution for 3 consecutive years whose language of instruction is English.
The world of education is still postcolonial.
There is an active geo-politics of the English language, especially in education. Knowing how to speak, read, write and understand the English language changes everything these days. English is used as the language of instruction in most educational institutions across the world. In schools, colleges, work organisations, all over the internet—— you name it—— almost all over the world. The English language Statistics: Global Speaker Numbers are at a high.
images: courtesy of ChatGPT
English is the first language of only 390 million people out of almost 8.2 billion people on this planet as of 2025. And if only 1.5 billion people speak English, then what is happening with the remaining 6.7 billion people in the world?
Did they choose to deny themselves opportunities?
Did they all choose not to learn English? Not to find work in places where English is spoken? To not get a well-paying job which requires you to communicate well? Did they not go to an English-medium school by choice? Even if I were to believe that some part of that population is a rebel. That they only wish to commune in their own language and culture. But surely not 6 billion of them?
It would have been fine if English was not a global language. If English was not the language that formed bridges among people of different languages and cultures. It could have been French if we changed a bit of history leading to French colonialism. Instead of talking about the English language here, I would say the same things about French. The language is not the problem. No matter which language you replace English with— the result is the same.
We need changes on a system-level.
Can we pause to think how are non-native speakers of English navigating the education system? Are we adapting our learning resources and content to make space for local/global cultures? How are our identities and first languages getting affected? Are we making space for linguistic diversity and inclusion?
I believe this is where integrating creativity into education and an educative quality in creative pieces of work becomes helpful.
Creative education can do wonders at all ages and stages of English language education. Especially for all the non-native English speakers who now teach or learn in a language that is not their first. The term is quite self explanatory. Use art, stories, games, videos. Make it playful. Art-based. Multi-modal. Digital. You can make education creative, interactive, applied and fun!
And educative creation is something that we need more of as a complementary act. For creators of any kind—— artists, comedians, poets, writers—— whoever wishes to practice mindful and conscious creation. Become a part of this (r)evolution. When you are interested in creating content which makes the audience curious, it nurtures the learner inside them. And those who consume it, they start to grow. Sometimes even outgrow their comfort, complacency, habits and patterns of old. It also becomes a creative piece with a potential to be used in someone’s education course.
or let me do it for you >>>
Leave a Reply