The Importance Of Creativity In The Homeroom

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.

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.

“Do Schools Kill Creativity?” by ken Robinson is a very powerful speech, as well as a good insight on the other side of the spectrum. Mr. Robinson begins his speech he mentions the amount of creativity we as humans have and how we have no such idea where we are headed in the future. Ken makes a point that we are educating and have been educating people to be prepared for the future. He asks why. We do not know what the next few years bring, how do we educate people properly for it. As Mr. Robinson continues he makes a point that creativity should be as important as literacy within education. Throughout the speech he gives countless examples where simple creativity and being different has brought people success and lead them down a path that math or literature never could.

If you search almost anywhere on the internet about creativity and public schools you will run into a video by a man named Sir Ken Robinson. He emphasizes that schools kill creativity in every way. On the other hand, President Barack Obama disagrees whole heartedly. Both of these men agree that creativity is important to children and schools but they disagree on whether or not creativity is being implemented in schools. Robinson stated in his lectured at TED 2006, “I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it” (Ken Robinson. TED2006). He goes to say that

At a local level and as an educator and parent, I see no indication that schooling is preparing students for innovation and creativity. Even when influenced by constructivist or universal design ideas, school tasks - starting in elementary school, up until CEGEP- are generally highly structured, predictable and offered in cookie cutter format. There is little room for creativity and few subjects are regularly offered, such as music or visual arts, that support creativity and out of the box thinking to allow for a more well-rounded approach to education as suggested in the discussion forum (Hector,

Steal Like an Artist talks about education and creativity. Unfortunately, Austin Kleon does not go into depth about creativity in the classroom, but he did say, “School is one thing. Education is another. The two don’t always overlap” (Kleon A., 2012, pg. 19). I think in todays society people do not expect creativity in education. Teachers just teach to the test because they want their students to do well on the standardized tests. I feel like school should be teaching students to be creative, and allowing students to use their mind in more ways than just memorizing to the test. Ken Robinson goes more into depth about creativity in education but both Robinson and Kleon agree that there should be creativity in education, “The challenge now is to transform education systems into something better suited to the real needs of the 21st century. At the heart of this transformation there has to be a radically different view of human intelligence and of creativity” (Robinson K., 2011, p. 14). In class we have also talked about how using creativity will allow students to remember things better, therefore they are educating themselves. If students do a dance that represents the solar system, they will be more likely to remember the solar system better. I think creativity in the classroom will allow students to learn in different ways and then the student will be getting a better

Creativity in the Classroom is an article written by Nicholas Provenzano that was published on the George Lucas Educational Foundation website in June of 2015 that is meant to assist teachers in combining creative arts in their general education curriculum. Provenzano addresses the common concern that teachers share pertaining to the lack of room for creativity in an education that revolves around standardized testing by offering three specific strategies. The first of these techniques is what he calls “open-ended projects”. Provenzano explains that the teacher provides students with a topic and has them prepare presentations that they feel suit them best as well as the rubric they would be graded by, which has resulted (for him personally)

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 his video, “RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms,” and his lecture, “Do Schools Kill Creativity” he discuses the need for a Paradigm shift from standardization teaching to divergent thinking (Robinson, 2007). Sir Ken Robinson explains how divergent thinking is an essential capacity for creativity, and with this paradigm shift, students can create original ideas, and can metaphorically see a bigger picture when learning. Ken Robinson discussed how everyone learns differently, and some students may learn better if they are able to tap into their creativity, and possibly use different

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.

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

Creativity is undoubtedly the most essential element to social change in the daily life of people living in this era and society. Creativity as defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is “the ability to make new things or think of new ideas,” ; creativity is in grave danger in today’s society, with the increased removal of the arts from public education and the increase of technology usage in children, kids are being programmed not to think, understand, and create for themselves. Social change is most directly driven by innovations in technology, education, and design through the creativity these innovations spark in the younger generations. Tan Le’s Emotiv delves into the idea that our communication with machines does not have to be limited to direct, physical interaction, and can occur within our minds, Ken Robinson focuses on the idea that public education is killing students creativity by valuing certain subjects over others, and finally Dale Dougherty reveals to listeners the wonderful world of makers and what they’re adding to society through thinking outside the box.

Creativity is thought to be something more of a selective gift or personal trait rather than a skill. It is not magic it just needs to be taught and people need to have the time and the right environment. People are commonly found saying, “oh no I can’t help you with that project I’m not creative.” This statement however is similar to people saying they cannot “do math”. In actuality every person has the capability of doing math however to some it comes easier than others. It has been construed for a long time that creativity is a talent that only a few possess in order to physically construct things commonly associated with the arts. However, creativity is not some rare gift bestowed on certain children at birth; it is a mental capability and a skill that must be nourished in order to reach its full potential for that particular individual. It is a skill that extends itself much further than creating acceptable paintings and pleasing songs. It is an essential life skill to have and thus needs to be taught to people at a young age so they can adequately develop this skill and use it throughout their whole lives. The American educational system fails to embrace creativity which consequently produces students with misguided views of the importance of learning and makes student unprepared for college in

Creativity is something people use throughout their entire lives. The billboard that you drove by this morning was created by someone with an original idea. That someone who created that billboard has creativity. Not only do adults have creativity but it started when they were kids. In elementary schools teachers love helping their students broaden their imagination, but once the students get into middle school things start to change. In middle school teachers tell students to grow up and that they are to be ready for what life throws at them in high school. Their creativity is smashed right into the ground. Throughout middle school and high school all the teachers seem to be worried about is how we test. They seem to not care about what we want to do to broaden ourselves and to help us push ourselves harder, they just want us to test well for the state tests. Once those students get to college, they have another thing coming, they are told to think outside the box and to come up with something original but that is not how they were taught throughout middle school and high school. Teaching students to the test instead of trying to broaden their creativity is what is wrong with the system. Students need creativity throughout their life because in the real world people want to see something new, not the old stuff.

What makes people creative? Is it their ability to create a perfect picture with just a pencil? It is the ability to put words to a beat to express oneself? Or is it the ability to think outside the box? I think it is all of these things. Creativity flows throughout our bodies just like the blood in our veins. The most important place blood or creativity can travel to is to our brain, allowing us to create something out of nothing. Creativity is what sets us all apart, just like our DNA. Without creativity we wouldn 't have many of the things we have today. We might not even have cell phones if someone didn 't think creatively about a way to take talking on the phone outside of the house. Unfortunately, creativity is not always nurtured at school, even though it is a necessary life skill. Creativity is actually one of the most important things they could teach us in school because it leads students to be more interested in the subject matter, it gives them the freedom to express themselves and it creates life experiences when one creates something new.