Perhaps, no one could ever imagine such a “flat” world with all the cutting-edge technology and massive expansion of AI we are living in today.
Some urgent global issues such as energy scarcity, climate change, and unprecedented pandemics have posed huge challenges to humankind. We are put in a situation where our disciplinary knowledge may not be as helpful as it was during the last three industrial revolutions. Today’s world — and everything that it’s thrown to its people — requires more than that.
In the face of the fourth industrial revolution, there is a different story.
Creative education is the answer for the present and the future
Now, the goal of our education system is to provide us with the knowledge and necessary skills to get a job or to pursue particular expertise. However, after being struck by a global pandemic, we found ourselves living in a constantly unsettling world where things that used to be considered stable and eternal could be completely eliminated almost instantly.
Clearly, adaptability is one of the most essential skills that every child born in 2021 may need to survive and develop in the year 2050. In that context, creativity is the answer to the adversities of the present and the future.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” Albert Einstein famously said.
But how does our society define creativity?
Thanh Bui — an international artist, an educator, and the president of Embassy Education — shared his story, “Do you know who is the most creative person I’ve ever met? My accountant and my finance director. They have an exceptional capacity to logically link a series of events. Their ways of thinking and approaching problems are so creative that their mindsets go far and beyond.”
In many of his talks, Professor Howard Gardner — renowned developmental psychologist and the father of the theory of multiple intelligences — always emphasizes that intelligence is the capacity to solve problems or create products that are valued in various cultural settings. But he noted that IQ is not the only measure for our intelligence.
In some developed countries, people have been growing up with a rigid frame of mindset that creativity only attributes to a handful of specific features and that creativity just occurs within the world of arts as we know it.
However, as the human race’s collective intelligence gets developed over time, we start to discover that true intelligence is, in fact, a connection between different disciplines — sciences, logic, engineering, and even “magic”. This is called the “symphony of mind”, where our brains, with its unfathomable power, bring all of these disciplines together to bring out that hidden potential we have within ourselves.
This is the perspective and philosophy of creative education that Embassy Education’s ecosystem is pushing for, based on the four cardinal points: respect, integrity, understanding, and responsibility. Its mission is to orient the young generation about the rapidly changing world, inspire them to find their own voice, potentials, and navigate their direction in the future.
It’s only through this that they could live the best version of themselves and become future “Ambassadors for Life”.
Symphony Of The Mind 2021: “Creativity is the next intellect”
“Symphony Of The Mind” is a series of annual conferences discussing the future of education, held by Embassy Education Group with the mission to advocate and promote the concept of Creative Education in Vietnam.
The first event of “Symphony Of The Mind” in 2021 welcomes professor Howard Gardner – Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero and the father of “Theory of Multiple Intelligences”.
Whereas the traditional education system only focuses on logical intelligence development and teaches millions of individuals in the same way, within the specific standards. If you are an outsider, you would be considered “dull” and “useless”. According to “Multiple Intelligences”, modern education must pay more attention to each individual, nurture and develop multi-intelligence that is unique to every person.
In addition, the conference will also welcome a great number of intellectuals and professionals such as Processor Ngo Bao Chau and educational diplomat Ton Nu Thi Ninh, and other outstanding young talents across multiple fields in the country and abroad. The event is a partnership between different private institutions that believe in the same mission: Vietcetera, i-IVY, Similac, Biti's, and Dentsu Redder.
The guests will discuss, share, and deliver the message “Creativity is the next intellect” as the next inspirational chapter of Vietnamese education.
The young talents who will give speeches at the conference are:
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Tri Giao: student in Computer Science at Princeton University
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Hoang Anh: student in Art and Media Studies & Integrated Science at Fulbright University, Viet Nam.
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Minh Quan: student in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Vĩ Phan: student in Economics-Philosophy & Art History at Columbia University.
These inspiring talents are expected to bring out the most realistic perspectives of a more intellectual, socially aware, empathetic Vietnamese generation.
“We hope that through this ‘Symphony Of The Mind’ in 2021 with the theme ‘Creativity is the next intellect.’ Many Vietnamese parents will find inspiration to nurture their children’s creativity, preparing them better for an uncertain future, and more importantly spreading the message far and deeply within the Vietnamese educational system at the present and in the future,” shared Thanh Bui.
This year’s annual conference will be held online, exclusively for registered and invited audiences at https://embassyeducation.edu.vn/symphony/