Informative Speech outline-Brooke Finch

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Florida State College at Jacksonville *

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2011C

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Arts Humanities

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Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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“Schools Kill Creativity” Brooke Finch Nicole Darcy Ruhi Dalal Introduction I. Attention Catcher : In a Ted talk that was controversial at the time, Sir Ted Robinson posed the question, “Do schools kill creativity?” We aim to show that they do it in multiple ways. [Image page 3] (Graphic,2020) II. Listener Relevance Link : Everyone has been in school or will be sending loved ones to school. III. Speaker Credibility Statement : We were students in public schools and experienced their creative negativity. IV. Thesis Statement : Schools were designed in a way that crushed creativity while creating successful obedient workers. V. Preview: School structure, teaching styles and plans, medicating or mistreatment of children considered different. Body I. First main point : Schools kills creativity through school structure. A. Subpoint: Public education has been structured to focus on some subjects more than others. 1. Sub-subpoint: Schools all around the world have traditionally given more importance to subjects like math and science compared to teaching students’ subjects like music and dance. Mathematics, Sciences, and humanities have been considered subjects that are more valuable to learn and people with degrees in these subjects are told they will have more successful careers. 2. Sub-subpoint: The public education system has been around since the late 18 th century. At that time certain subjects were given more importance because they would help people enter the workforce ( Buffalo State) . In today's time there are a lot of different careers a person can be successful in, so it does not make sense to focus more on subjects that are traditionally considered important. B. Subpoint: School takes up a significant amount of a student’s day but not all the subjects they learn about will benefit them in the future. 1. Sub-subpoint: According to an article from a newspaper called education week, an average student in the US spends around 8,884 hours from elementary school to the first year of high school (Sparks) . This is nine years of the student's life. If a student spends this amount of time perfecting a skill or developing a creative hobby, they could become experts in their field. 2. Sub-subpoint: A lot of kids do not have the time to focus on extracurricular activities that they are probably more interested in compared to their schoolwork, because school and homework take up most of their day. If kids were given the opportunity to learn more about concepts that interest them, they would be more interested in school and they would be able to dedicate their time to things that they love doing. Transition: The way that schools are structured cause teachers to have to limit their ways of teaching. II. Second main point : Our schools kill creativity through the teaching styles and lesson plans. A. Subpoint: A school's focus is on tests and assessments. Finch, Darcy, Dalal 1

1.Sub -subpoint: In most classrooms, there is no room for creativity because all the students' time is going to test prep. Joy Resmovits from the Los Angeles Times states “On average, students from pre-k through 12th grade take 112 standardized tests.” Schools always emphasize the importance of tests and evaluations, but they never emphasize or praise children for their thinking process along the way (Resmovtis). 2.Sub-subpoint: Daniel Luzer from the Pacific Standard writes that 120 American writers sent a letter to former President Obama warning him about why the increasing use of standardized tests in schools is killing creativity (Luzer). B. Subpoint: Todays teaching styles are taking the fun and creativity out of learning. 1. Sub-subpoint: In schools, teachers assign creative writing assignments but tend to give you the exact topic and structure the assignment needs to be on. How are children supposed to be creative when they are forced to speak on a specific topic they might not enjoy? Real creativity is based on a child’s own experience, memory, observation, and imagination. Some students are born to be artists, dancers, or graphic designers. 2. 2. Sub-subpoint: Classrooms are all focused on facts and memorization. Students should feel they can let their creativity shine through their education (Dalile). Transition: The structure and teaching styles do not allow students to fit into their molds, which leads to the last point. III. Third main point: Our schools kill creativity by medication or mistreatment of children considered different. A. Subpoint: If you can’t sit still or cause disturbances, medication is suggested to help conform to the school’s standards. 1. Sub-subpoint: Children in 1937 who may have had ADHD (at that time it was an unknown illness and wouldn’t be added to DSM until 1980) were being treated in a mental hospital when it was discovered that stimulants lessen their symptoms (Lange). 2. Sub-subpoint: A public school teacher, Morgan Emrich says, “99 times out of 100, it's not a kid who is having a problem learning. They typically are bright kids, … were medicating. They are definitely energetic kids. Kids that question, kids that argue with teachers… And we are lobotomizing these kids” (War on Kids, 47:27). 3. Sub-subpoint: Psychiatrist Peter Breggin, says “The definition of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is really a collection of behaviors that annoy teachers and require attention. [in the DSM] ... It is the source of the diagnosis for ADHD” (War on Kids, 56:02). B. Subpoint: Student’s deemed troublemakers can be mistreated to attain the school’s desired level of control/conduct. 1. Sub-subpoint: Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, a professor at Harvard University writes in the preface of Carla Shalaby’s book Troublemakers , “In our efforts to control and measure, … we pathologize, exclude, and then label those children who do not fit the norm…we reward the teachers who contain and squelch the troublemaker’s” (xii). 2. Sub-subpoint: Dr Henry Giroux, a professor at McMaster University says, “And then you see these rules that are now being enacted where certain infractions that Finch, Darcy, Dalal 2

in the past, you would have sent the kid to the guidance teacher…, we will call your parents. Now kids are being put in police cars, handcuffed, and dragged out of school, photographed, fingerprinted” (War on Kids, 10:21). 3. Sub-subpoint: When interviewing two current teachers they both said they manage disruptive students with more structure (Brooks, Wateb). Dr. Giroux would reply with this, “… The lesson [here] is that the most cherished institution that we have, …all of a sudden, models a prison” (War on Kids, 16:18). Transition: This treatment of our students should be the last straw in realizing that something is wrong with the way schools are run. Conclusion : There are many ways to kill creativity and we are actively sending children to experience them every day. I. Thesis restatement: The main goal of schools is for students to do as they are told and not to think for themselves. II. Main point summary : Through schools’ structure, teacher planning/style, and medicating/mistreatment of student’s, creativity is being phased out of education. III. Clincher: Sir Ken Robinson ended his Ted talk with the story of an eight-year-old girl in the 1930’s whose school recommended she see a doctor for not concentrating and being fidgety. During the visit, the doctor left the music on when leaving the room with the mother. The girl started dancing to the music and the doctor said she was not sick, but a dancer. The mom then enrolled her in dance class and that girl went on to become the famous choreographer Gillian Lynne (Cats and Phantom of the Opera) (Robinson,15:04). Finch, Darcy, Dalal 3

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