A POST-COVID 19 URGENCY FOR QUALITY EDUCATION TOWARDS CREATIVITY-BUILDING & PROMOTION OF ETHICAL VALUES - THROUGH ARTS/PERFORMING ARTS EDUCATION

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic brought humanity to a standstill, to breathlessness, a sense of helplessness – despite a well-grounded conviction of the power of the high sophistications of the digital world. A sudden stark drastic reality emerged: ethical values like humanness/empathy have to be tapped for global collaboration and the creative urge of mankind has to be tapped even more than what we had imagined - in order to adapt, to put up with, and survive the laws of nature. This conceptual paper revisits and reflects upon perspectives of some mystics, philosophers/educationists - where arts/performing arts education, being part and parcel of their holistic approach to education, functions as a tool for the development of ethical values and creativity – which is, or rather should be among the emerging priorities of the after-Covid-19 education. This reflection is significant. Although neuro-function processes behind the mechanisms of creativity and processes through arts/performing arts are still being explored, although there is an exponential growth in understanding of the interaction of the arts with the human brain - there exists in parallel, an almost universal converging conviction among mystics, philosophers/educationists, way back down the centuries and across civilizations – that, what the world needs is not a synthesis but an interplay between scientific analysis and mystical intuition- hence the need to merge academic and non-academic (arts/performing arts) learning.