The Education System - Killing Creativity?

I was talking to another person and he brought up an interesting topic I thought I'd post here to let us discuss it and get some opinions.

Often education today has high demands on kids to pay attention and it's a system of sit in class, do homework, get quizzed...then after a while take a big test to make sure you meet standards. Sometime after, you take the tests for the state and even national surveys to be done on school performance and student aptitude. I know when I went to regular school, the classes because of this seemed to drone on and some that could not hold my interest became incredibly dull (kind of like how some people find my essays!) and I just couldn't hold my attention on the material.

Once I entered college/uni though, the way classes were taught was incredibly refreshing for a number of them. I was asked my opinion and answers became more intuitive and I had to think more instead of just memorizing things for tests. Yes, there is still a lot of memorization going on but also I just felt that I could be more involved and the classes tend to be smaller than in High School. You can also more easily select what classes you want and have more options available. It also seems that there is a lot less drama in classes as teachers have the right to boot out bullies and trouble makers or demand they shape up or ship out sort of thing, but creativity and the ability to explore more just seems like even trouble maker sorts want to be a part of it because they have less time to goof off.

I was wondering on opinions here about how you feel about the school system and how you feel it might be improved to let students feel better about themselves, be a part of the structure and hold kids' interests more. As it stands, I do see problems in the way school is designed and think if curriculum addressed not on just meeting 'standards' for tests but also on interesting kids and encouraging creativity, kids might do a lot better and school wouldn't be such a dread thing. Also, bullying and such could be addressed more because teachers being more interactive with students instead of just droning on, they could deal with it sooner. It might also get teachers to feel better about instructing their subjects too. So...thoughts?

 

I understand what you are saying. The education system is getting somewhat like a military school, follow orders and complete execises. Since some schools are CRAZY with homeworks, some kids don't have the time to use their creativity. Thought if they have a favorite TV show coming up, they can always use Direct TV Plus, anyways, education system is getting tight, I mean, how can possibly they say they want kids to have a "better" future by erasing their creativity? My teacher is VERY obssed with math as in he aplicates anything possible. Anyways, creativity must be in someone to aplicate a class to another.

 

Well, in my School in Scotland I think that we have a very good system. In 1st and 2nd Year of high school you are taight 12 subjects by different teachers:

English
Maths
French/German
History/Geography/Modern Studies
Home Ec 1st Year/ CDT(Tech) and Graph Com(drawing but like for adverts and on computers like what architects do) 2nd Year
Art
Music
Biology, Chemestry, Physics
Religious and Moral Education
Personal Social Education (like Health)
P.E.
Basic Computing

Then in 3rd and 4th Year you pick 4 subjects (you are made to do 7 others) which you do exams in at the end of 4th year.

The choices are:

English (must do)
Maths (must do)
French/German (must do)
R.E. (no exam but must do)
P.S.E (no exam but must do)
Core P.E. (1 hour out of 30 a week, must do, no exam)
History, Geography or Modern Studies
Biology, Physics or Modern Studies
Art, Music, Graph Com, Home Ec or P.E., Hospitality (pure cooking)
Administration (like working in an office), Buisness Management, CDT, Computing Studies (A rounded comuting course with programing, Office tools, Animation, sound editing, graphics and website building in it as well as some computer building), P.E, Home Ec or PC Passport ( a basic computing course)
Free choice which includes:

french/german (whichever one you haven't already been made to do), Buisness Managemant, CDT, PE, Home Ec, Art, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computing Studies, Administration, Hospitality, Music Graph Com, PC Passprt, Childcare, Hairdressing, Enginerring Skills and Practicle Craft Skills.

You sit an Exam in 8 of these at the end of 4th year. You then pick 5 subjects to study in 5th year with your Highers at the end and with a couple of new ones added. You also have to do English in 5th Year no matter what. Then you pick 3 or 4 subjects to do in 6th year with your Advanced Highers or More Highers at the end. Then you leave and go to collage, uni or start working.

 

There's a really good video on TED that fits this topic perfectly. As soon as I find it I'll post it.

Otherwise I pretty much agree with what Repliku said.

I also want to say that of course schools are going to kill creativity. All they teach is how to be right, rather than letting people be wrong and still have an ego. Every school I've been to (high schools and middle schools in particular) constantly forces "how to be right ALL THE TIME" into your head. lol

Also, by placing certain things like Math, Science, Social Studies as other core classes as more important than others, it teaches mandatory necessity to a material that they might never use. I'll agree that Math, Science and the like are very important but not to everyone. It only serves to benefit the workplace, and nothing less.

I might have more on this later. :3

 

I think it's killing creativity.
My school at least.
My schools curriculum revolves around Math and Science, very logical subjects. Everything is about tests and scores. Even in the English department, we never have creative writing assignments. My school doesn't even provide extracurricular activities to even it out.
Everything is about work...Which I understand, but still. There could at least be something in school pertaining to the students interest besides maybe one elective. At least in college you get to chose your classes.

 

really.......it was the opposite for me. in grades K-12 i was able to pay attention in class becasue ti was interesting. but once i hit college, i just fall asleep in class. so i would guess it would be the teachers, not the system.

 

In the most literal of senses the only way to kill creativity would be to erase all possibility of thinking outside the box; still I understand the point you are making.

However consider creativity and how it is valued, it IS something that is valuable because it is rare, and it is rare (in my opinion) because it cannot be taught, true most of the pre-college classes do not encourage creativity but there is some logic in how drolly they carry out their system. After all it is an education system, not a creativity creation system; the education system as a whole is merely to enlighten students about the basic workings of the world, not the finer points, which is what college is for (you don't need me of all people to tell you this though).

Now as for improving the system, one of the most straightforward ways of "fixing" the problem is to get teachers to do their bloody job. Many teachers through either time in their job or because of their personality lack the energy needed to put forth the effort to "teach," in college the circumstances are at least different in that the students in their class will show, at the very least, more motivation to be in said class, as well as the bar being raised for expectations.

There is also the salary comparison (in most cases) where the college professor gets more as of course, in accordance to their craft and the level at which they teach, there is nothing "wrong" with this but pre-college teachers do not have the best working conditions in comparison to the time and effort they put in, then again in some cases it is the "bang for your buck" rule and others is, as said earlier exhaustion from teaching. Not all students are very kind, willing to learn, or even good people to begin with, and teachers are only human as well, so if there is to be improvement on the system it would have to come from both ends.

(I say this as I work at a learning center and I see that the students that have parents who encourage them or at least show interest in their work, will excel greatly in their studies; but if either side fails to show any effort in the endeavor of learning, the "learning" process goes to hell.)

Now as for the testing portion of the school system, I greatly despise it, but it is unfortunately a necessary evil unless the class in question can be "tested" in a more different/applicable sense. Also the truth of most classes K-12 have standards which, ironically state they wish to encourage creative thought but the standard goes unfulfilled because of the teacher and/or the student.

Also student and teacher interaction as well as the wavering line of it can partially be addressed by the cases of "inappropriate teacher-student" interactions we usually get to hear about from on the news and the new cautions that start to crop up because of the lapses of certain conduct. Also lecturing is something that is sometimes necessary, though smaller groups would be better, there are some things that are more efficiently dealt with when they are addressed to a large group (namely information that cannot be dealt with in other ways, namely in language [foreign and otherwise], sometimes it must be lectured out to be taught). But more creative and involved learning exercises could be created and enforced into the system.

Speaking of which, there are certain subjects which the education system forces its students to learn despite how the practicality of it is limited to a small percentile of the populous. A classic example would be Calculus, a base for ROCKET SCIENCE must be learned by nearly anyone who wishes to pursue a "higher academic" career (such as being a doctor or anyone who wishes to apply to many of the universities available), there are few exceptions to this rule which puzzle me greatly.

 

oh, interesting topic... I have never thought about this before...

I do know, that the more you know the less there is to imagine or create... your knowledge is killing your creativity. that is a fact.

I was so creative when I was a boy... I could think up story lines to use to play with my toys and such... but the more I grew up and the more I learn, the harder it got for me to think up story lines for my toys... until I got too old to play with them anymore. but another reason I stop playing with toys is becuase I couldn't think of any storylines with them... then came video games... and movies... and many other things... which came with story lines limiting my imagination again... due to the fact that it would be boring to just copy something...

when I came to this site, I learned of RPG's and participate in those now... which have reawakened my imagination. but it is still hard to think of ideas... people actually copy stuff from other shows to participate in an RP becuase they can't think of any ideas... mainly the education system... but other things as well...

the fact still remains: the more knowledge of the world you have... the less imagination you have...

 

I know what you are talking about, even though i haven't been to college yet. i find it boring sometimes in school, because i mainly learned the same stuff last year, so it is like every grade is a review, or a repeat grade. But as you gradually move up grades, school becomes more interesting. but to some other people that don't want to listen act like it is nap-time in Kindergarten, so i think people have different perspectives of school, but in the younger grades, I think it is harder to keep attention.
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I really don't think school is killing creativity. I still have plenty of it. Though my school may be different. Usually for projects in any subject for my school, you come up with your own idea to present it to the class.
EX. In a math class, a teacher may tell you that you need to show a prism. You have to build it. You have two weeks. With that I can build whatever I want as long as its a prism. Since this actually was an assignment, I made a fish.Which to me, is using creativity; making things out of real world things.

But I may be biased just because thats how my school is. Though I have to disagree, I don't think it is killing it.

 

I agree with that. The teachers put so much pressure on the students about the tests and nothing else. We remember everything most of the time but only learn what is needed and not what is imporant and afterwards most of us just end up forgetting everything becuase the way we learned it wasn't intersting and didn't keep our interst​

 

Creativity can be promoted, ignored, or actively protested. This really makes no difference. Creativity is within you the person, it's not in anyone else's control. It's not even really a matter really of killing creativity so much as allowing it to manifest in different ways. A scientist is perfectly capable of being the most creative human on Earth, to solve the riddles and mysteries of the world. One needs to be able to bring something from nothing and think of something new, that's creativity. You can create in different ways with a different knowledge base and can have a different mind set on the subject, but the fact remains that whether it's regurgitating information or using that information to extrapolate new information creativity isn't killed by simply testing based on facts rather than imagination.

As an afterthought, this may be just me but I actually like having set clearly defined parameters of right and wrong and even in creative subjects there are wrong answers, it's just how you come to that conclusion may be a bit different. Also, knowledge births creation in my opinion, because without knowledge you have no premise for creative thought.

 

You can have a creativa and intelligent person.
I mean if you look at Leonardo Da vinci, he is a world renown scientist, inventor, engineer but he is also credited with as being an excellent, influenctial and creative artist.

But back to the question, yes and no. To me it would depend completly on the age. Since wheny uor younger they always try and pump in the 'bascis' into your head. Though at about the start of college and Uni and you get to really choose what you want, it's when you start to explore alot more, a point when you begin your REAl creative experience.

 

Hmm, if I think about it, my school is actually VERY open to creativity. Next to learning and memorization of our beautiful, big and fat textbooks, we are constantly given assignments or projects which reflect US as individuals, taking in our opinion and comparing them to the rest of the class, school, and as well the world [but it also has to be relevant to the given topic of course]. Artistically, it can be the same I suppose, as no one really stops us from showing who we are in school in out own unique ways, both in classes and outside of classes. The school actually does try and split its education system into halves, one for knowledge, the other for creativity. I guess this is a good thing about my school, and I'm glad for it.

Next to the positive, there is of course the negative. One thing I dislike about my school is the bullying thing. More like, if there are rude, and disrespectful people in school, they are hardly ever taken care of in time, or in due time . . . almost like the staff are afraid of the students [which is actually a fact, unfortunately]. As the LAUSD law, we are required to stand and be tolerant of such students, and it's just a little annoying after a while. I understand that everyone is in need of a second chance, but it's going over just a “second†chance. We do have zero tolerance for violence, but in my opinion, it's really is not helping much.

Last thought . . . So what if MY school is supportive of creativity, and looks at the students and respects them as individuals? There are plenty of other schools out there that are lacking this privilege, and this takes away a lot that a student might've been able to learn in such activities. As a result, some are actually lost in college, to suddenly have found a little freedom. Every school claims to be creative, but in fact, only a very few are, and this really is a serious issue.

 

The bullying issue is one that is harsh. Bullying has gone on forever but it just seems like there's no way of resolving most of it until it gets really extreme. I do think the bullying and way some students behave is why we are not as free as we could be in classrooms. Of course with no real course of discipline that can be taken anymore, these students will remain and cause disruptions. Teachers probably are afraid of them but not just them...but lawsuits from parents who are delusional and think their kids can do no wrong.

 

I agree with this a lot.

It seems that in schools they just teach you the same things over and over again. You could graduate the highest in your class and never learn about how to voice your opinion or do something that actually involved your aesthetic ability. Every year they shove math and science equations down your throat that no one will ever actually use, and it therefore becomes tedious and boring. That can start to wear down on a student, and suddenly their life can become nothing but go to school, take a test, do homework, wash, rinse and repeat.

This is also part of the reason why I want to become a teacher. I want to help kids escape the vicious circle of school and help them bring out their creativity. Instead of research a famous poet, I'll have them write their own version of a poem capturing the same emotion, whether it be in the form of a story, a photograph, or a drawing.

Yes, the memorization of these facts is important, but I'd rather have spoken my mind and created something that used my creativity than just recited facts and definitions.

 

Finally, I found a subject which has been nagging me for a while and maybe even longer than expected. Creativity is one thing neglected by citizens and intelligence due to the fact people are arrogant enough to neglect it in the first place and put their materialistic needs in front of everything else. As for us, we simply try our best to enlighten the subject and tell them to actually realize what the hell a book is. Unfortunately, we always wind up being the ones to shrug and ignore them. But anyways, I seriously think that being teachers and such, they should promote creativity even if they are just kids in elemenary. It doesn't matter, they are still people, right?

I grew up personally realizing that teachers seriously hate it when kids love to express their creativity through anything from lietrature, poetry, art, etc. It really ticks me off to see what the education system has to become. They were the ones who said they wanted creativity, and in the process, they neglected it in a rather bothersome manner. It's really sad that once you get to college, that's when people finally begin to listen to you and you can express your opinions with actually quite decent, and creative critique. Well, that's my opinion. Hope I didn't get too off-topic.

 

Bullying is why people are afraid to show creativity, along with whole issue of your self image. Creativity is sparked by an individual when he is able to let loose and express what they feel, but when one is being bullied, fear sets in on the individual, and that spark of creativity immediately dies down. Being made fun of of the things you create and build is killing creativity in an early age, and it is also being done in every grade until HS. The self image concept is also ruled by bullying, as we become more and more self conscious about how others look at us in the world. If one was criticized on how he creatively expressed themselves, he will be aware of it the next time, having felt like an "idiot" frome before, he will back down from it.

The best scenario I can give is perhaps a Drama class. Consider a class where students are learning and letting themselves lose, but then there are those who will laugh and make fun of those who are letting lose, calling them stupid and funny. Those are also the students that cause disruptions in class. With so many things involving our image today, students feel inferiors due to those factors, and hide their talents which ultimately make them unique. A teacher asks a student to write a poem, the student groans and moans about how they cannot do it, or they don't want to. This is because they are afraid of what their peers will think of them. Our view of the world has become way too narrow, always placing a label on what is “coolâ€, and what is “wack,†and in doing so, we're killing the creativity. The teachers do try to be creative, I can say that, it's not that they don't, but you cannot simply ignore that the students are also at fault here. Teachers are also human, after all, and if the students keep denying the given creative assignments, what can the teachers do about it?

Now, the concept to “take care†of such bullies is difficult. I believe that the schools are way too lenient towards such students and they are not given the proper discipline. I think I like those schools better where the teachers have the right to physically discipline their students . . . it at the least stops the disrespectfulness. It's fine that, that is not allowed here, but parents can always take on that role, but they don't, that's the problem. However, along with being delusional about how their children are saints, parents also fear their own kids. Teachers are afraid of the students and any lawsuits that might come flying at them from the parents, but the parents are also afraid of the same things; a little “too much†discipline, the children can always sue them.