The Importance Of Creativity In Education

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 is an abstract concept that is crucial as part of our advancements of mankind whether that be in the scientific fields with new inventions and research or in the artistic fields with new paintings and amazing portraits, but most people do not understand that the gift of creativity can be a crucial source of innovative ideas. As a result of the need of creativity, schools must include creativity as part of the daily curriculum that students learn. Students already spent seven hours a day at school, exposing them to a class that helps them efficiently and correctly use creativity would be beneficial to not only students but to all members of society. Places of education such as high schools must include classes in creativity in order to create

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.

reactive in its approach to tackling the issues at the school. As the most effective school policies have demonstrated, the whole school needs to come together to change the culture to create the positive, safe and productive learning environment that all schools, parents and students want.

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.

Even though Standardized tests are beginning to rise, they do not help students be creative thinkers (Gonchar 1). High stake tests do not cause “standard” thinking (Gonchar 1). Schools are heavily focused on the use of google, standardized tests, computers, calculators and other gadgets to provide quick answers leaving creativity in danger (Gonchar 1). Creativity has not died, but it has lessened (Gonchar 1). “From the high-stakes tests in K-12, ...to the economy’s focus on short-term return on investments, American society’s reward structures tend to discourage unconventional thinking and limit risk-taking” (Gonchar 1). Students are given high stake tests through grade school for the economy's advancement (Gonchar 1). The government's way

This Ted Talk lays out an argument that creativity is not only severely lacking in modern education but that it has been systematically marginalized by society during and after the industrial revolution. The speaker also contends that encouraging creativity in contemporary learning will enhance society in yet unknown ways. He reinforces his ideas with very poignant stories that show the inconsistencies with thinking on creativity versus reason and logic.

The NASA creativity test was launched to measure the percentage of creative geniuses in 1,600 children and 280,000 adults. At age five, 98 percent of children emerged as creative geniuses. By adulthood, this percentage decreased over time to 2 percent (Tony Wagner 28). In a modern world, new information is attainable within seconds. Jobs and careers are less dependent on what workers know, but what a worker can create, solve, or produce with the abundance of knowledge. Creativity, as defined by educationalist Sir Ken Robinson, is simply described as "the process of having original ideas that have value" (118). More than ever, creativity is needed to advance in today's world. At the age of five, Children are rushed from all corners of America

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 .

Regarding back to the Ted Talk video, the question upon us is, “Do schools kill creativity?” Although I believe there are educators who desire children to be “normal,” I also consider that the ultimate reason children lose their creativity is caused by judgment from their fellow peers. During early adolescent years, throughout junior high and high school, students crave the ability to be “ordinary.” Adolescents tend to neglect creativity due to insecurities, the desire to “fit in,” and not encountering the proper reinforcement to explore their imagination.

Within the fields of both cognitive and educational studies an abundance of research has been undertaken in an attempt to better conceptualise and define the term creativity. Within many contemporary Educational fields of research the need to provide a clear definition of the term has provided researchers with the challenge of conceptualising creativity so that a student’s display of creativity could be assessed. Sternberg (1986) suggests that ‘being creative highlights a subject’s ability to push traditional modes of displaying knowledge’ (pp. 16, 24). Similarly, Franken (2005) reconfigured this definition, stating that ‘creativity is a higher form of knowledge’ (pp. 124). Within both definitions the concept of creativity is centred within the idea that creativity is a part of ordinary human cognition. Further, Coughlin (2006) suggests that ‘Creativity is generating new ideas and concepts… where connections are made between ideas where there was no clear connection existing’ (pp. 35). Similar to the definitions of Sternberg (1986) and Franken (2005), Coughlin situates creativity within the processes of human thought—however Coughlin furthers this idea by stating that ‘creativity cannot be displayed … it is a process not a product’ (pp. 37). Camp (2011) however, argues that the definition proposed by Franken places too much emphasis on Creativity being an explicit form of knowledge (17), Camp further suggests that to define creativity ‘a subject must first look at the

Many people believe that education and creativity go together. The smarter you are, the more creative you are, but this is not the case at all. The education system is actually undermining creativity. Sir Kenneth Robinson is a british author and the director of the Arts in Schools Project. He has won various achievements in his career including the LEGO prize for international achievement in education. Ken Robinson did an amazing speech which turned out to be the most popular speech on Ted Talk to this day. He had this amazing speech in February of 2006. He starts his speech out by saying, “. . . children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue, despite all the expertise that’s been on parade for the past four days, what the world will look like in five years’ time. And yet we’re meant to be educating them for it” (1). Ken Robinson believes that creativity nowadays is just as important as literacy in school, and we need to treat them with the same status through the education system. He starts talking about a story of young kids, and it sets up one of the best quotes I have ever heard. He says, “Kids are not afraid of being wrong. Being wrong is not being creative, but, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” (2).

In the Ted talk video clip the presenter describes how he views creativity in education today. He believes that education has created a hierarchy between subjects, meaning subjects such as languages and mathematics are placed at the top, and creative subjects such as art and dance are placed at the bottom; where level of importance is at the top and not so important is at the bottom. He also describes intelligence as being dynamic, diverse and distinct. He goes on to say that we truly need to rethink the fundamentals in which we teach our children, we need to focus on educating the whole being instead of educating children from the center of their bodies up.

“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.

The concept of creativity and how it originates is something that has been subject to change over the past few decades. Initially creativity was thought to be only attributed to a few individuals who were ‘gifted’ with these ideas through special hereditary transmitted traits; that the genius or highly talented individual was born with the skill of creativity and not made (Glaveanu, 2010). This was what was known as the ‘He-paradigm’. A paradigmatic shift later occurred that then moved psychology from embracing only the ‘He-paradigm’ to incorporating the ‘I-paradigm’. This paradigm shifted away from the idea of creativity as being something purely innate to believing that all individuals have the potential to be creative. It