Do Schools Kill Creatively?

Education means something different for everyone. According to Mike Rose, “a good education helps us make sense of the world and find our way in it” (33). The truth to this is that education affects us in every aspect of our lives. Rose emphasizes the value in the experience of education beyond the value of education for the purpose of custom or intelligence; he explores the purpose of going to school in terms of how he defines himself and his personal growth in the stages of his academic career. In Rose’s exploration of the purpose of school, he also reflects on his personal experiences and how those experiences gave him tools that are applicable to his daily life. Mike Rose’s Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us persuades his audience of the importance of education beyond the classroom, emphasizing how those experiences become crucial to one’s personal growth and potential.

Many are quick to disregard education’s role outside of the classroom. According to Mike Rose, “a good education helps us make sense of the world and find our way in it” (Rose 33). Rose emphasizes the value in the experience of education beyond the value of education for the purpose of custom or intelligence; he explores the purpose of going to school in terms of how he defines himself and his personal growth in the stages of his academic career. By reflecting on his personal experiences and how those gave him the tools applicable to his daily life, he emphasizes why education should never be overlooked. Rose’s use of referencing relatable experiences in a logical manner makes his argument persuasive to the readers and he succeeds in making the readers reconsider why education matters to them. Mike Rose’s Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us effectively persuades his audience of the importance of education beyond the classroom, which proves true in our everyday lives because the essential aspect of education is what we do with it and how it helps develop one’s personal growth.

As students were forced into their growth of knowledge in elementary school and middle school by continuously being taught basics, in order to prepare them for high school and beyond, they get to gain their freedom and decide whether or not they want to meet their teachers’ marks in high school. Throughout the school year, there comes a time where students have to sign up for classes. By having this choice, students can decide on how they want to challenge themselves in the next school year. During my two and a half years of high school that I have conquered so far, I learned that in a classroom setting there are students who take advanced courses, enjoy the subjects that they chose to take, and try their best to get the best grades that they can receive, in order to prepare them for their future in adulthood. However, there are also students who do not try or realize the importance of the free education given to them because they do not have an interest in the subjects that teachers are teaching them or are just being forced by their students to attend school. Some teachers try their best to bring out the motivation in these students who do not yet see that education is power and freedom, but there are also teachers who ignore these helpless students that are blinded by the present things that affect them like popularity or living with the motto that “you only live once”, because these teachers do not have the inspiration in the

School, everyone summons different thoughts and connotations whenever they hear that word. Although people range in their opinions of school, many can agree that schools all have the same goal: to educate their students. This is proving to be false; John Taylor Gatto provides evidence of this in his essay, “Against School.” Within this text he explains how schools are not educating students to be the best they can be, instead teachers are teaching them to become role players in today’s society and to be desensitized from their natural creativity. Gatto, a three time New York Teacher of the Year, has had his fair share of teaching. Gatto provides evidence to the audience that they have been wrong all along about the way a school functions. His ideals prove that the schooling systems in today’s society are not what they seem; schools are thought to develop and help a student unlock their full potential but through the evidence that Gatto provides us he shows that the education system does anything but that. He shows us this by appealing to the audience’s logos and pathos or their logical and emotional natures.

Yet even with these realizations that delve into the deeper meaning of education, modern education is still calling for simple measurable outcomes and continues to be geared towards specific employment ideas. This model of education is blatantly inadequate though. Many students today will end up holding jobs not yet invented in fields not yet discovered, so the teaching of answers to today’s questions is utterly useless. Albert Einstein once said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” and this statement reigns true throughout time. To continue academic success, the education system needs to impart a mastery of one’s own mind that allows students to not only answer current questions but also to pose questions that will shape the future world.

Amy Caesar’s lecture advocates for constructionist education as she believes the new era of 21st-century learning entailing creativity exists now. Specifically, she supports the alternative education system and outlines the various forces that have attempted to hinder the actualization of DL learning such as the teachers union and the ministry of education. Overall, Caesar spotlights the importance of utilizing knowledge in a manner that is applicable and flexible to all members of society.

Schools today, are a place for students to come and learn as much as they can. Only by valuing their time spent there can students learn how important their education really

Students are only being programmed to know their major and nothing else as if they are robots with no mind for their own to improve on nor think freely. In the essay The Role of the Teacher, written by Irving Layton, he states, “A feeling has grown that schools and universities are not achieving that which they were intended to: namely, the enrichment of the individual's life by giving him the tools of self-improvement and the cultivated mind to use them” (339). Layton explains that our current educational system is not sufficient enough in teaching this generation of how to live a good life. The current education system does not enrich the minds of the students which causes a lack in creativity. Living a good life entails the education received from our schools of course, but as well, it is a life in which the society is developing on self-improvement and enrichment of

She explains that when children get to high school they don’t ask themselves what they want to do in the future but seek advice from others to what they should do to have a successful future. The reason being is that children have been raised with a mindset that if they get into the best schools then they reached their maximum goal. Moreover, the speaker’s tone in her talk is insisting because she constantly emphasizes the value of children. She insists that children should not be defined based on their academic excellence but on their passions and self-efficacy. The use of pathos helps her convince the audience that academics does not guarantee success.

When discussing education, one usually mentions the grand opportunities it rewards. But a factor that is usually overlooked is the strain it can have on relationships and identity. Rodriguez, the author of The Hunger of Memory, Alvord, the author of “Walking the Path Between Worlds, and Kincaid, writer of “On Seeing England for the First Time” all shared experiences with education that have caused them to question their identity, the value of their education, and caused a strain in their relationships.

"Do Schools Kill Creativity?" TED. Feb. 2006. Lecture. This Lecture is a source that you provided us during class; it is a Scholarly source. Robinson discusses at a TED talk that school is killing our creativity. What he means by creativity is getting rid of art, dance, theater and music in our schools. It is apparently harder to find a job in those categories. Simply because not everyone has the creativity to be in one of those majors. And with creativity majors it takes practice. You can’t wake up one day and be a professional grade artist. It takes years and years to perfect that, and most people do not have the determination or patience to become a fine arts major. If you have a gift for a fine art, school makes you put it aside and focus on the other subjects. School forces you to declare a major that you can get a job in. Sometimes, most majors that you can get a job in requires little to no creativity. (“Do School Kill Creativity?”) Unfortunately, if you want to be a theatre major you are harshly looked upon because you aren’t going into something like engineering. Advisors quickly frown because they fear you won’t be able to find a job after all that hard work. Why do we not have many job openings for fine arts? I do not like it that they are trying to take away our creativity. But on the other hand I understand why. It truly is harder to get a job in the fine arts

The main idea of Robinson's talk is the American education needs revolution. Because the current culture of our education contradicts all the ways in which young minds flourish: diversity, curiosity and creativity.

“I will not let my school interfere with my education.” This line is famously known by the classic american literature author, Mark Twain. Isn’t it ironic? Clearly, schools are meant to teach children education, right? Even Albert Einstein, german scientist and a well developed symbol of a “genius” was a poor student. He disliked school, and just as he was planning to find a way to leave (at the age of 16) without hurting his chances for entering the university, his teacher expelled him because his bad attitude was affecting his classmates (Encyclopedia of World Biography). So why have so many brilliant people fallen behind or have a strong dislike for the standard brick and mortar school? It is because our school system still practices old industrial-style traditions rather than changing to keep up with the modern world. Our school systems today emphasise and misdirect irrelevent knowledge, practise outdated rules and learning techniques, fail to feed the full potential of students; neglecting to truly prepare students for their careers and the real world.

People usually mention the cliche that schools have the sole purpose of brainwashing, any ignorant student, from the very day they enroll in kindergarten up until their graduation date twelve years later. Schools are designed to teach some sort of conformity, but without that guiding path, students will surely fall under an eternal void because of their lack of interest.

In almost every culture and in all parts of the world, getting an education is valuable to a person’s future. But what is it that makes education so valuable? What is the purpose of an education starting from the early stages of a child’s development into adolescents, and from adolescents into adulthood?