Education Is Killing Students Creativity

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.

Do Schools Kill Creativity? TED is a non-profit organization that serves to present ideas that are worth spreading through strong rhetoric and persuasive appeals. In his eminent Ted Talk, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how public education systems today disregard creativity as an important component within the academic growth of students. Robinson focuses on the importance of creativity by creating a variety of arguments, which persuades the audience to take action upon this heavily ignored issue. His use of pathos, ethos, and logos makes an entertaining case for creating an education system that nurtures rather than undermines creativity. Throughout his speech, Robinson emphasizes pathos by his use of humor and discussion of personal

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures rather than undermines creativity. I fully agree with everything Sir Ken Robinson discusses in his speech. The importance of creativity, originality, and the arts have been deemed nonessential in the public school system. The emphasis placed on math, the sciences, and test scores have stifled many children from discovering and flourishing at their talents. If children are not exposed to the arts and the ingenuity needed to think for themselves how will they have the ability to produce an original story, even if they are taught writing and grammar.

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.

Education has tarnished the idea of an original thought and has caused us to “grow out of creativity.” An idea that I am now convinced is a possible reality due to the intellectual, thought-provoking argument made by Sir Ken Robinson that schools do restrain creativity. In Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” Robinson argues that schools do kill creativity by addressing his audience in a sophisticated yet playful tone that keeps the audience entertained and invested in what is being discussed. Robinson connects with the audience by telling jokes, using simple reasoning, facts, and personal stories that allows the audience to be emotionally moved by the argument. Robinson is able to open up the audience to a reasonable idea with only one reasonable solution, and it just so happens to be his. Obviously, a bit biased, Robinson steers clear of self-promotion by recalling stories of other’s accounts and relating to people as a professor instead of a person.

Jazmin Herrera Professor Dominquez English 301-11 17 September 2014 Essay 1- Rhetoric Analysis In Do Schools Kill Creativity?, Sir Ken Robinson argues a case for creating an education that nurtures creativity in a TED talk. TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design), is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation. In which, Sir Ken Robinson, an English author and speaker, attended and spoke during a TED talk in February of 2006 about the educational system and creativity.

According the most recent national assessment recorded in the Washington post, “the nations high school seniors have shown no improvement in math and reading performances since 2009.” In the most recent years, education has taken a huge downfall. Since 2010, over 45% of students drop out. Many students have problems with the grading system, so many different testing programs and having to follow a set of rules and not expand on those rules. The education system needs to induce more creativity, enforce the ways on how education is important and elaborate more on the rules of grading.

Although creativity is not seen as salient in America, it is critical to the stability of progress and resolution of problems; therefore, adults must provide children with more opportunities to innovate.

Historically, creativity has caused technological advancements and cultural progression. Soon, hopefully within my lifetime, technology will outpace the current labor system. Robots and computers will completely replace manufacturing jobs, service jobs, and all repetitive jobs. Workers instead will be able to focus on creative work, such as crafts and trades, design, art and music, and thinking. The majority of the labor market will soon be forced into these creative roles that don't just maintain the flow of the world, but work only to advance our culture and standard of

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.

Do schools provide students with enough opportunities to be creative? Most children in the United States start school at the young age of five. Normally children are looking forward to the art class part of their day. You with often see drawings on notebooks kids will keep with them on their binders/school supplies. So are schools taking this joy away at too early of an age? Should art or other creative classes be taken more seriously? And finally why are these creative classes one of the first to go if the schools are having budgeting problems?

of creativity and innovation in my own work and in other disciplines. This class challenge

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.

In “Do School’s Kill Creativity?” published on Ted.com on February 2016, speaker Ken Robinson questions the effectiveness of our education system to facilitate creativity. To support his position, first, Robinson explains how creative and talented every child is, and that the education system is “educating people out of that creativity”. Next, he explains how the world’s education systems place all the emphasis on subjects deemed as useful for employment and academic abilities; consequently, talented, and creative individuals believe they are not due to the schools not valuing or stigmatizing their talents. Finally, he speaks of intelligence, how diverse, dynamic, and distinct it is. Robinson ends with a statement that educators need to recognize children’s

One of the first webpages I visited from the suggested readings and other resources was the article “What I Wish I Knew About Creativity When I was 20.” This article grabbed my attention because I just turned 20 and I think creativity is very important. Perhaps the most important part of the article that I read was that trying and failing is better than not try at all. I think I’m scared of failing a lot, so I avoid doing what I feel like I will fail. All the other aspects discussed in the article, I believe help me understand creativity in use and creation.