So, do
schools kill creativity? The simple
answer is yes, and they are highly effective at it. However, the blame cannot be placed squarely
on the teachers and administrators of the different districts. If it was there fault, surely by dumb luck
some school district would think outside of the box and emphasize the arts or
do something different than all the other districts. No, the true fault lies with the states and
federal governments that create graduation requirements tied to disciplines
that are no longer valued outside of academia.
I am not advocating that math, science and English are not valuable
because they are incredibly. Yet, how
can a five year old be referred for special ed three months into kindergarten
because they can’t read? The reason,
student’s today need to complete so much schooling and work by the time they
arrive in high school to be prepared to take a test that will determine if they
can graduate that will assess them on two things. The some of the intelligence of a person is
not two things, yet that is how we determine the quality of their education.
How
then can this be fixed? Sir Robinson
states it quiet simply by saying we need to educate the whole child. To accomplish this we must remember that
education is diverse, dynamic and distinct in all people. What one student excels at, the next
struggles with it more than anything and has learned throughout their schooling
to hate. As teachers we need to encourage
the creativity in our students, by exposing them to different media and
ideas. I implore you to allow students
the freedom to present information in different ways and to allow students to
be themselves and use the technology that they have grown up with to be a part
of their education. By allowing the use
of digital media, teachers are allowing those truly creative students the
ability to express their knowledge in a way that is truly them and not in the
mold of everyone else. While crafting a
good essay will get you far in school, how far will that take you in the
workforce?
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