Creativity And Education ( Conventional Wisdom )

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.

The beauty of creativity is that it is abstract, yet ubiquitous: in art, music or how one decides to compose an essay. However, creativity has recently been declining among the human population. According to an article, named, “The Creativity Crisis,” by Newsweek.com in July 2010, authors, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, state, “the Torrance Test … indicates that the public’s “creativity quotient” has steadily crept downward since 1990” (Prompt 1). Bronson and Merryman report that the test, which evaluates one’s creativity, had been dispensed to myriads of people across the globe, and have concluded that creativity has been slowly diminishing. Kyung Hee Kim, professor at the College of William and Mary, also comments that this is most prevalent and grave among students from kindergarten through sixth grade (Prompt 1). Consequently, society, or in this case, the world fears that current students and future generations will not be nourished with the creativity required to thrive as individuals, affecting the world as a whole. Ultimately, this poses the question whether a creative thinking class, which solely focuses on the education of creativity, should be taught in the school. This school should impose a creative thinking class, due to the fact creativity is a vital element for the future and is the solution to the creative crisis.

In a society where everything is constantly shifting and changing, it is essential for education to move away from teaching facts and figures to educating to inspire curiosity and creativity. The need for creativity in the classroom matters more than ever in our society. "Creativity is no longer seen as just being for artists and musicians .It's a crucial skill for everybody to master. "the following three articles were elaborated critique Department thinking, creativity and observation of contact,

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 the video “A Changing Culture of Creativity” by Howard Gardner, Gardner discusses the evolution; one could also say the possible devolution, of creativity in the world today and why we need to change the way we analyze. He points out that many young people have become followers in todays ever-changing technological world as opposed to the pioneers of creativity, like those we have seen in the past. Creativity needs to be nurtured and it must we must harness the use of the technology that connects us to do so.

Technology genius and business mogul Eddy Zhong, in his Ted Talk “How school makes kids less intelligent”, 6 Feb 2015, argues that school is restrictive on the capabilities of many kids brilliant minds, due to their uniqueness. He first supports his claim by first presenting a profound statement to the audience which requires a logical interpretation. Then Zhong establishes a contrast between High school and elementary kids, by proving their creativity differences and finally he utilizes a metaphor to emphasize the value of creativity. Zhong’s purpose is to inspire and encourage creativity in students in order to confirm that doing something you believe in is never the wrong thing to do. He adopts a euphemistic tone for students who may not aspire to do what others want them to do with their future

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein saw it. Everyone else should too. There’s something wrong with schools today. Students are taught to listen, not to learn. They’re given assignments that they don’t find interesting, they’re told to write papers on topics they have no interest in, and they’re asked to take tests on material they couldn’t care less about. Students are failing classes, and dropping out of school. Instead of the schools being built to accommodate new students and new methods of teaching, students are “built” to accommodate the school’s old ways of teaching. In order to properly educate and inspire creativity in students, there must education that is tailored to meet the needs of every student individually.

In the first book we read “Out of our Minds Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson” really opened my eyes to the possibilities creativity holds. He talks about how creativity is being squashed in modern classrooms. He strives to get the reader to understand the importance of imagination in today’s world. Society is really changing education as a whole and how the classroom is set up, common core standards comes much before creativity but it should be equal. Robinson states “If all you had was academic ability, you wouldn't have been able to get out of bed this morning.

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.

Children are no longer encouraged to be creative in the test prep environment. Instead, they are being taught to perform well on standardized tests and are labeled as unintelligent if they don’t. Young children are born with creativity and we see that when they are playing and pretending. According to Sir Ken Robinson, in Slon’s (2013) article, “by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity” to be creative. The fundamentals of creation and experimentation are not part of the standardized testing mechanism.

In 1967, The Plowden report recognised the importance of creativity, particularly in relation to the Primary Curriculum (Craft, 2001; Gillard, 2001). Subsequently, the NACCCE report identified a requirement for further investigation into creativity and cultural education (Craft, 2001; NACCCE, 1999). Nevertheless, it can be argued that creativity is complex, subjective and therefore difficult to define (Sousa, 2008; Kersting, 2003).

Creativity is an elusive and challenged concept and there have been various attempts to define it. Creativity has been described as ‘a state of mind in which all our intelligences are working together’ (Lucas. B. 2001) and as “the ability to solve problems and fashion products and to raise new questions”. (Gardner 1993)

Consequently, it is necessary for our 21st century students to learn to “manage the complexity and diversity of our world by becoming more fluid, more flexible, more focused on reality, and radically more innovative” (Cookson, 2009, p.10). Sir Ken Robinson argues that it is necessary for teachers to teach for creativity, “where the pedagogy is designed to encourage other people to think creatively” (Azzam, 2009, p.26). This involves encouraging students to experiment as well as giving them opportunities to innovate (Azzam, 2009). Teachers need to teach in such a way as provide “the tools they need to find out

United Kingdom can be seen as one of the countries that first engaged in creative education, which is the fundamental and essential way to foster young generations to be creative (Joubert & Green, 1999). They believe that creativity is “imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value.” (Joubert & Green, 1999: 29) From the “child-centered” pedagogical approach particularly in art at 1960’s to the comprehensive development of creative learning embedded in the mass education, especially aimed to the further development in economic at the end 1990’s (Craft, 2001), “creative education” is aiming to unlocking the potential of each individual to enable them competent in facing the unpredictable future in the 21 century so as to assure the country’s economic competitiveness in its further development (Joubert & Green, 1999: 14).

“Never let formal education get in the way of your learning,” said Mark Twain. In the several years of my schooling formal education has been a major downfall in my learning and creativity. At a young age schooling in the 21st century gradually removes creative skills away from children, teaching them what this generation perceives to be successful. In my opinion, I find this to be false, because those who still hold on to their creativity through the many years of their education grow to be more successful. Success is not always defined as wealth or materialistic things. My definition of success is doing the things that you love which may eventually lead to success in the future. If you are in a career field you do not care for the chances of your success are not likely because you are not doing something you love, which will not influence you to strive for more.