Suppressing Talents: something between an open letter & a rant

There’s this TED Talk by Ken Robinson about how schools are destroying creativity. I agree with him strongly. Our educational institutions are thoroughly career-oriented because most people are under the impression that getting a job and earning a lot of money are the two main purposes of life. Sure, they’re important, but by no means are they the most important goals you have to achieve in life. We’re being forced to use just the left side of our brain when it comes to education, and our creativity, passion and imagination are being suppressed. Anywhere you go, you’ll find the arts down at the bottom of the subject hierarchy, far below languages, maths, the sciences and the humanities. Why? Because dance won’t get you anywhere. Because algebra is more important that singing. Because drama is just a pastime and cannot be considered as a real subject. Because painting does not make you the CEO of a large company.

This is a subject I feel very strongly about but a recent meeting with a doctor, who was a total stranger to me, made me feel compelled to write the following:

OPEN LETTER TO A DOCTOR I MET A FEW MONTHS AGO-

Dear Mr. My-Father’s-Incredibly-Smart-Colleague,

You asked me what I’m planning for my future, and I told you I wanted to have a future of full-time writing.

You, a total stranger, then proceeded to give me a long lecture about how writing is just a hobby and it won’t get me anywhere. You had the nerve to compare me with a relative of yours who used to want to be a flight attendant and ended up studying microbiology or genetic engineering or something, which I respect but, I am not her.

My Journey

I originally posted this on APT 18 and the Feedback Page. I just felt like posting it on YSBU too 🙂

I’ve been on Storybird for over two years now, and it’s home. It’s family. It’s life, to be honest.
On October 27 2012 (my birthday), I was flipping through a children’s magazine, b0red. In the website reviews section, something caught my eye:

storybird.com

I decided to visit it, even though most websites they reviewed were too childish for me. I typed in the URL and pressed Enter, and I was taken to another world. Storybird was very different then from what it is now: there were no mentions, reposts, notifications, longform books, poetry, or anything of the sort. The layout was totally different from what it is now. Still, I found the website intriguing and made an account on it with the username, NancyBlake – a pseudonym I liked to use often.
And then, I started to read.

‘Not Perfect, But Still…” by primadonna_girl – A Storybird Review

Not Perfect, But Still…

by primadonna_girl

Format: Picture Book

Age range: Tween (8-12)

Published: May 31st, 2014

Artist: Various

Not Perfect, But Still… is a beautiful story about loving who you are. It gives a wonderful message: beauty lies inside who you are, not what you look like. The story is in first-person, and is narrated by a friend of the protagonist, Fiona. Fiona feels that she is not as beautiful as other girls, while the narrator assures her that the others are jealous of who she really is, and care about nothing but looking “good”. The story ends with Fiona being convinced and walking away with a smile.

I enjoyed this book, because it gives a very strong, inspiring message which should be taught to more females in our society. It could have been made better by using more relevant artwork, but then, it’s quite hard to find artwork which matches perfectly when you’re writing a picture book