Do schools kill creativity?
In this TED video, Sir Ken Robinson says something about how no one really has a clue what the future will bring (not even five years from now), yet we spend lots of time educating towards it. He said that creativity in education is as important as literacy and should be treated with the same status. That's really made me think upon what exactly I want my own daughter to get out of her schooling and what things are most important. If I was to list some of those things, I doubt many would deal with academic achievement.
One of the college classes that I'm taking, Learning Disabilities, has also made me think through a lot of things that happen in schools (particularly public schools, and especially the local school system). There have been numerous discussions about EOGs and EOCs and how passing a class doesn't necessarily mean you'll get credit for it. We're teaching our children just to be good testers.
I've also realized that if everything we learned was technical or academic (such as the trend of teaching to tests) and did not also develop our bodies or minds and not simply our memory for rote material, how could we move forward improving the world, solving crises, developing community??
What will happen beyond those five years into the future?
One of the college classes that I'm taking, Learning Disabilities, has also made me think through a lot of things that happen in schools (particularly public schools, and especially the local school system). There have been numerous discussions about EOGs and EOCs and how passing a class doesn't necessarily mean you'll get credit for it. We're teaching our children just to be good testers.
I've also realized that if everything we learned was technical or academic (such as the trend of teaching to tests) and did not also develop our bodies or minds and not simply our memory for rote material, how could we move forward improving the world, solving crises, developing community??
What will happen beyond those five years into the future?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Rae Pica on -
Wendy, thanks for this! Love, love, love this video -- especially the story about the little girl drawing God!
Of course, creativity in childhood is one of my pet projects. And, yes, if you ask me, schools are very much responsible for killing it; and the emphasis on standardized testing has only made it worse. They lead children to believe there's only one correct answer to every problem, which is simply not the case in life. Peter Sacks' Standardized Minds points this out brilliantly -- and scared the heck out of me.
I'll post more on this topic later. Look forward to hearing what our other members have to say!
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on -
School absolutely kills creativity! Children are creative by nature and often times are punished for that creativity. Lets face it filling in the bubbles doesn't take much creativity. Not to mention creative activities such as art are practically non existent in schools. At Christmas I visited my sons 4th grade class for their party. The room was decorated with "art". Everyone's was exactly the same. They call it art but it's not. I think if schools didn't try to cram so much learning in to the school day and school years and considered the arts and creativity as vital to learning our children would do better. As things are now children aren't thinking creatively, they are thinking "do I have the right answer, it's either a,b,c or d."
If this continues our future will be bleak. Less people thinking creatively means fewer inventors and inventions. I think this is an unintended consequence of our current school system. I think new leaders thinking creatively is what we need. However it's hard to be creative when the structure for schools is so inflexible and not encouraging of creativity.
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Permalink Reply by Rae Pica on
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No, what you describe in your son's classroom definitely is NOT art! And you're right about the potential for the future being bleak. We're still training children for a 19th-century world! We actually have no idea what their world is going to look like; things are changing so fast! What the world of the future is going to require -- whatever it looks like -- are creative problem solvers. And we're educating children to become anything but creative problem solvers!
Stephanie said:School absolutely kills creativity! Children are creative by nature and often times are punished for that creativity. Lets face it filling in the bubbles doesn't take much creativity. Not to mention creative activities such as art are practically non existent in schools. At Christmas I visited my sons 4th grade class for their party. The room was decorated with "art". Everyone's was exactly the same. They call it art but it's not. I think if schools didn't try to cram so much learning in to the school day and school years and considered the arts and creativity as vital to learning our children would do better. As things are now children aren't thinking creatively, they are thinking "do I have the right answer, it's either a,b,c or d."
If this continues our future will be bleak. Less people thinking creatively means fewer inventors and inventions. I think this is an unintended consequence of our current school system. I think new leaders thinking creatively is what we need. However it's hard to be creative when the structure for schools is so inflexible and not encouraging of creativity.
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Permalink Reply by WendyZ on -
Last night in my college class, we had a long discussion about how (probably due to No Child Left Behind) teachers have had to leave all of the fun hands-on activities. Now a lot of teachers have in essence thrown out their curriculum and teach what is on the EOG/EOC tests. Our instructor said she has known very few teachers in the past 20 years that can cover what is required for the tests and still have a creative learning environment.
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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on
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There are some teachers who try to squeeze in creativity but their days are already so overbooked that it's difficult. My youngest son has had the same teacher for 1st and 2nd grade and I think that has helped the teacher and the children. The teacher knows the children well enough that she can squeeze in fun things...last week they had ants in class and this week they had an egg hatch...not many teachers can or will do that at their own expense. Good teachers are so hard to find and keep because of things like NCLB
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Permalink Reply by Janet Channon on -
Sometimes there are many right answers but the teacher fails to see a different point of view. Teachers with a narrow view on the world are certainly stifling childrens abilities to be creative, but also to think laterally. Children of today need to think of new solutions to old problems if we are to go forward in this fast changing world. We need to give children opportunities to think outside the square and explore ideas while still fitting into some parameters.
Today in my 4 year old music class we were doing a song which said "Break out". Children were seated on the floor in their "egg". On the music cue they needed to "break out" two arms at once. We discussed directions, and tried different options: up, in front, behind, to the side, both to the right -or left, or crossed over. We tried one arm to the front and one to the side, and many different combinations. The children's task was "break out" three times in three different ways. How they chose to do that was entirely up to them. One child even balanced on his bottom and one arm "broke out" between his knees! I had never thought of that idea!
The song then says "turn, turn, turn, turn". The children were sitting down. They needed to find a way to turn. Some children rolled, some spun on their bottom, some children put their hands on the floor and jumped their feet around in a circle. They had some parameters to fit into (they had to turn and were in a low space) but how they chose to solve that problem depended on their own ideas. Some children are happy to follow the others, they are still filling their "ideas backpack" and that's ok, their own ideas will come down the track. But for those who can invent a new way or discover or develop a new idea, what right do we have as adults to squash that creative flare? And when children are all inventing and developing they feed off each other, the ideas multiply so much more than if they only used the ideas of the teacher!
Our world is changing so fast. To do something "the way it has always been done" doesn't necessarily have to be the right way for the future. Let's look for opportunities every day where children can use their own ideas. Incorporating their own ideas into the learning experience builds more focussed and fullfilled learners.
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Permalink Reply by Simon Wiltshire on -
Yes schools do kill creativity, but not necessarily the fault of the schools themselves, but with our 19th century way of assessing what and how children learned. In much the same way that we haven't moved into this century in looking at the school year (when was the last time your kids went out in June to plant the seed, or stay out until Labor Day to harvest?), so we have focused on learning facts. Well facts change or become obsolete. The method of assessing data and drawing conclusions, including thinking out of the box, is what counts. The US did not become what it is because we were all taught to think the same way. It is what it is because of our historical ability to create new business, new ideas, new services. History also tells us that many of those concepts and ideas were developed by the 20% of our kids that our schools downright fail because they "learn differently". Have you looked at Lego lately? What used to be a case of taking a few different pieces and using your imagination to create something unique, has now become a 50 page instruction manual dedicated to replicating the latest vehicle from Star Wars or Indiana Jones. Hopefully this will at least make us useful as an outsourced labor pool for the Japanese, Korean and Indian entrepreneurs of the future that are being taught and encouraged to develop new creative ideas in their schools today.
Sorry to ramble on, but I just coincidentally saw a talk by Dr Arthur Harkins of the University Of Minnesota on this exact topic. Check out his site at http://www.leapfroginstitutes.org/
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Permalink Reply by Rae Pica on
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No need to apologize, Simon -- especially since I agree with you 100%! : )
Have you seen the TED video of Sir Ken Robinson discussing creativity? You'd love it. Read his new book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything this weekend. It's very inspiring. Will be interviewing him tomorrow for Body, Mind and Child Radio (www.bodymindandchild.com). Watch for the interview to go live on the site!
Simon Wiltshire said:Yes schools do kill creativity, but not necessarily the fault of the schools themselves, but with our 19th century way of assessing what and how children learned. In much the same way that we haven't moved into this century in looking at the school year (when was the last time your kids went out in June to plant the seed, or stay out until Labor Day to harvest?), so we have focused on learning facts. Well facts change or become obsolete. The method of assessing data and drawing conclusions, including thinking out of the box, is what counts. The US did not become what it is because we were all taught to think the same way. It is what it is because of our historical ability to create new business, new ideas, new services. History also tells us that many of those concepts and ideas were developed by the 20% of our kids that our schools downright fail because they "learn differently". Have you looked at Lego lately? What used to be a case of taking a few different pieces and using your imagination to create something unique, has now become a 50 page instruction manual dedicated to replicating the latest vehicle from Star Wars or Indiana Jones. Hopefully this will at least make us useful as an outsourced labor pool for the Japanese, Korean and Indian entrepreneurs of the future that are being taught and encouraged to develop new creative ideas in their schools today.
Sorry to ramble on, but I just coincidentally saw a talk by Dr Arthur Harkins of the University Of Minnesota on this exact topic. Check out his site at http://www.leapfroginstitutes.org/
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Permalink Reply by WendyZ on
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Rae, I am so excited that you will be interviewing Sir Ken Robinson! I need to add his book to my "to read" list for the summer before I get mixed up in reading for college and my daughter!
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Permalink Reply by Rae Pica on
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I'm really excited, too, Wendy -- and very grateful that you pointed me in his direction in the first place! : )
WendyZ said:Rae, I am so excited that you will be interviewing Sir Ken Robinson! I need to add his book to my "to read" list for the summer before I get mixed up in reading for college and my daughter!
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Permalink Reply by Brenda Nixon on -
Thanks for sharing Wendy. I think there's a delicate balance parents must walk; we want our kids to be creative (color outside the lines metaphorically speaking) but we also want them to "play by the rules" and succeed in school. As a mom, my approach is to encourage uniqueness and self-expression at home yet encourage respect and obedience for the teachers. I realize there are even art teachers who hold up a model and say, "Make yours like mine" which totally kills creativity in the very class that should foster it. However, there are some absolutes in life. Again, it's a delicate balance and one we can teach our children.
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