An Undervalued Component Within The Education System

Are we underestimating the importance of creativity? Many times children are not encouraged at home to be creative, either because their parents restrict their ideas, fill their decisions with pessimism, or simply do not pay attention to this matter. However, creativity is a skill that makes the human being flexible and resourceful as well as helping them see problems differently and identify solutions more easily. Many times education will directly contradict creativity. It destroys the innovation of ideas, and stifles the imagination, while claiming it is “teaching.” Sometimes entering a classroom becomes the closest thing to entering a time machine since our teaching methods differ very little from those of ancient Rome over 2000 years ago. In Ted Talk “How Schools Kills Creativity” by Ken Robinson and the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood” by Leon Botstein, two different opinions about the current educational system are presented. While Robinson believes that the schooling system should work to promote creativity, Botstein says that the concept of a high and middle school is useless and should be abolished. However they both agree on reform. As a parent, I have always been concerned about my daughters’ education, and have always believed, like Robinson and Botstein, that our educational system needs a change.

Creativity drives today’s world, with new technology arriving daily and science conducting itself further. We need creative and imaginative people in today’s atmosphere to bring the world to the next step forward. “Standardized college admissions tests assess only analytical skills, as well as the knowledge base on which they act, and completely ignore creative and practical skills (Sternberg 7)”. Without creative people in this world, where do you think we would be? Not very far. We need practical skills to go throughout everyday life. The standardized tests don’t test for that knowledge base, they test how much short term memory a

Ken Robinson is a university professor who challenges the way we are educating our children. He uses passion and humor to emphasize the importance of creativity and the need for a learning revolution. From Ken’s personal experiences, he has concluded professors tend to only live from their heads, and “slightly more to one side”. Having these professors responsible to teach us what is right and wrong is no dought steering new generations views on what we should value. Creativity is becoming stigmatized, causing individuals to ignore many career paths and conform to our set standards. He states, “we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it”. There are so many more types of intelligence, however we categorize one above all. Potential talent is being wasted.

Creativity is defined as the ability to produce new and unique ideas that diverge from established customs and norms. Over the years, however, it has diminished greatly in today’s society. From a young age, schools as well as some business force people to learn certain skills in order to please others. For quite some time, colleges based a student’s intelligence on their GPA rather than creative abilities. Those who are creative are restricted in their abilities; it is acceptable for a mathematically inclined person to lack artistic skills, but heaven forbid a creative student find a science based class challenging. Currently, Academy School District 20 has not implemented a creative thinking class in Liberty High School. I believe we should include such a program, seeing that creativity in students continues to weaken nationwide. By requiring students to think creatively, we can encourage students to innovate, grow, and learn.

Understanding of creative learning differs from those who see creativity as freedom to express ourselves to those who link it to self-discipline, practice and crafts.

In this age of high-stakes standardized testing the idea of creativity in the classroom has become less and less popular. Susan W. Cress and Daniel T. Holm present a compelling case study for keeping creativity in the classroom in “Creative Endeavors: Inspiring Creativity in a First Grade Classroom” published online April 1, 2015 in the Early Childhood Education Journal.

A smart man said “Creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same standing.” (Ken Robinson-“Do schools kill creativity?”). There are multiple studies on how creativity helps improve a student’s mind. Project based learning is a huge creative booster for students. A math teacher from California uses projects to do math instead of using the text book. From doing this, she’s had more students pass her class then from when she was teaching straight from the text books. Instead of having standardized tests, using more creative techniques for students to enjoy the learning they’ve done and for them to show the higher officials what the students are learning. Creativity is the process of turning real world problems into an understanding by extending the minds cognitive processes. In Alabama, kindergartners are studying different ways to be creative.

In Creative Schools, the second potential solution is the recognition of student’s unique abilities. A quote about this potential solution is, “All students are unique people with their own hopes, talents, anxieties, fears, passions, and aspirations. Engaging them as people is the heart of raising achievement” (Robinson and Aronica 56). This quote represents the main idea from this solution, recognizing and supporting the talents of students instead of shutting down their unique skills. The source of this factual evidence is the fact that all students are unique in one way or another. This reform an revolutionize the system and how students are perceived.

Creativity is equally as important as literacy, and we need to start treating it that way in schools around the world. According to Ken Robinson’s claim in his, “How Schools Kill Creativity” speech, he believes this to be exceptionally true. All children are creative and talented, however, we have grown up in a world where we believe that it’s wrong to exemplify our creativity. Robinson uses both, pathos, and ethos to help make his claim. He arises emotion in you; he causes you to really think, to trust him, and to question ultimately, how things are being done in the educational system. We as a world have become so consumed with the idea of putting each child into a category of what they’re going to be successful in, regardless of their creativity or passions. You’re either good at math, science, or English; everything is based on your academic ability. What happens then to the people who aren’t academically smart, but are more creative? They are then made to feel that what they have to offer the world simply isn’t good enough, but the truth is, it is good enough. Over time however, we are taught out of our creativity. Schools around the world kill creativity by instilling a sense of fear in the child that what they are doing, and how they feel is wrong, this ultimately discourages them, and they fall victim to the industrialized educational system that we have present day. Robinson believes now more than

In all fifty states there is a system wanted for killing all 50.4 million creative minds. This system is the school system. Students in schools are being robbed from their creativity by the school system by the school system not being mindful of how many different minds there are in all the students. There are so many different careers in the world to match these students creative minds. Sadly the schools of today’s generation are not properly preparing students for all these creative careers.

Furthermore, Robinson distinguishes between literacy and creativity, implying that schools esteem literacy more than creativity : “creativity is now as important as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status”.

Thank you, for sharing your view on this topic. A flaw that many educators witness is that test scores “places emphasis on what is measurable, which means there is a possibility of neglecting important educational goals as creativity, imagination, and appreciation” (Hale, n.d.). Focusing only on what is a measurable robes student of their creativity. It is important that we place emphasis on teaching students to be creative and to use their imagination. We can accomplish this by inviting them to be innovated thinkers. Dewey believed that “a universal education was the “key to teaching people how to abandon their habits” and think” (Popp, 2015, 7). An additional, way that I promote creative is to remind them there is nothing

When individuals ask about creativity, typically they have pre conceived notion of what is creativity. Studies from Business insider claims that school are trying to limit creativity by forcing classes that are little to no interest to students. Those who ponder the idea about what is truly creative are individuals who can be reason with. The art of creativity is one's own perspective; what one accepts as ludicrous other might believe to be brilliant. A ted talk by Sir Ken Robinson's proven this statement by using a child who fidgets a lot as an example of how most saw her as ill, but actually she's a talented dancer who later on became a prodigy in ballet. So, if schools took away her creativity, then she wouldn’t have reached her full potential.

In “Do Schools Kills Creativity?” presented in TEDx, Ken Robisnon discussed how creativity has the status as education. First, Robinson starts by stating that he has an interest in education. Next, he states that children are not afraid of being wrong and they also take chances. Finally, he stats that creative capacities needs to be seen for the richness that they are and the children for the hope that they are. Robinson use of a humorous tone in his opinion regarding creativity in school helped him get his point across to his audience .

The role of creativity in enhancing students’ learning in the classrooms of the twenty-first century has a central position in curriculum development today. As a key component of a global paradigm shift that emphasizes collaboration, there are many reasons why creativity and innovation are especially important for student learning now more than ever. “Life in the twenty-first century is marked by great uncertainty; this, in part, is due to unprecedented social, economic, and global changes…Students will need to be equipped to successfully navigate the increasingly complex and ill-defined nature of life in the twenty-first century” (Beghetto, 2010, p. 447). The opportunities for developing unique solutions to the complex challenges in our time require these creative processes as a foundation for the leaders of tomorrow. They must be learned in the schools of today, which is a global objective that teachers everywhere are beginning to adopt as a part of their teaching strategies in the classroom.