School of Conformity
Turning free-thinkers into safe thinkers
Creativity used to be unpredictable. It thrived in the mess. It challenged, disrupted, and refused to play nice. Now it feels like it’s been leashed. Packaged. Approved. Sold back to us with a warning label and a social message stapled to it.
Across the board, the creative industry is less about bold ideas and more about playing by the rules. Not the old-school rules of craft and storytelling either. New rules. Rules made by people who don’t actually create anything but have somehow ended up in charge of the people who do.
The takeover doesn’t start in meetings. It starts in the classroom.
Creative education today looks less like a space for open exploration and more like ideological boot camp.
You sign up thinking you're going to learn how to paint, write, direct, design. What you get instead is a crash course in identity politics and power dynamics. You learn quickly that some ideas are welcome and others are dangerous. Not because they're unethical or harmful, but because they don't follow the current script.
“Everyone’s walking on eggshells because no one wants to be called out, cancelled, or thrown out of the tribe…A quiet pressure to say less, colour inside the lines, and always, always check your politics at the door—unless it’s in lockstep with everyone else.”
Tutors don’t even hide it anymore. They reward conformity. They punish dissent. You want to write a dissertation that doesn't centre a social or political issue? Good luck.
You want to explore complex characters who don’t behave the way social media says they should? Get ready for the cold shoulder.
Grades and opportunities don’t come from taking risks. They come from saying the ‘right’ thing the ‘right’ way.
Once you’re trained, you go out into the industry, where the same filters apply.
Creative gatekeeping isn’t just alive, it’s institutional. The pitches, the grants, the festivals, the publishing deals, the funding - they all want work that reflects the ‘correct’ worldview.
People aren’t tuning into creative work to be educated by a ‘creative activist’. They want to be moved. Entertained. Challenged.
Not scolded.
But the industry is scared. Institutions are scared. Everyone’s walking on eggshells because no one wants to be called out, cancelled, or thrown out of the tribe. So they enforce the rules, and the fear trickles down. A quiet pressure to say less, colour inside the lines, and always, always check your politics at the door—unless it’s in lockstep with everyone else.
Meanwhile, real creativity is suffocating.
It’s not just happening in one place. It’s across music, film, publishing, advertising, and visual arts. You can feel it in the blandness of the content. You can see it in the ‘sameness’ of the messaging. It all points in one direction.
Obey.
Agree.
And people are starting to tune out. Not because they’re closed-minded but because they’re bored of it all. Not everyone wants to be dragged into a sermon every time they open a book or press play on a show. Culture was supposed to reflect life, not dictate it.
If we want to fix this, we need to reclaim creative spaces from the ground up. That includes the schools and universities. Stop turning art programmes into re-education centres. Let students challenge ideas instead of just absorbing them. Let them mess up. Let them offend. Let them find their own voices instead of parroting whatever ideology is trending this semester.
We need young people like your children infiltrating the system - giving us a fighting chance to stand-up to this nonsense.
When creativity turns into propaganda, it dies. And no amount of hashtags or DEI panels is going to bring it back to life.
If you feel you have a creative child who just needs steering in the right direction - have a look at the ‘Creative Futures Kit’ here on HatchEd.
This week it’s looking at using industry-based tools and choosing which suits
By the end of the workshop they will:
• Understand the difference between Canva and Figma
• Have confidence in choosing the right tools for the job.
• Create new folio projects using free software
Thanks very much for reading - there’s a bonus pod next week discussing future career paths and choices for Home Educated children, as part of the Creative Futures kit. Module 3 will also be available. If you haven’t become a paid subscriber please see the link below to access ALL HatchEd content 😊
See you back here next week!
“Beyond her exceptional teaching skills, HatchEd is delivered with warmth and empathy, combined with strong organisational abilities, creating a supportive and effective learning environment. The blend of professionalism and approachability sets her apart as both a teacher and an inspiration."
Terry Cook - Designer and Educator