I think that the educational system's treatment of creativity is one of our great downfalls. From dictionary.com:
Creativity: the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.
Creativity is treated as if it is a divine or inspirational quality rather than a learned, practicable skill. From that perspective, learners are either creative or not. A much stronger emphasis is put on learning the way things work than in re-envisioning our world.
I've lost track of the times people have used that old chestnut 'Don't reinvent the wheel'. If the guy who invented the wheel thought that, we'd all still be rolling around on square tires like a cartoon! I'd almost always rather build from scratch and make my own mistakes along the way than follow the herd.
Creativity? What is creativity? I think of myself as a cretive person, but I am often told to follow this and follow that. It is hard to "follow" when you are creative and you are teacher. At times I think you are forced to think inside of the box instead of the outside. Everyone says be original, think for yourself, or stand out, but no one wants to be the odd ball.
ReplyDeleteI feel that part of the "downfall" you are taking about have to do with the extreme emphasis on state testing. I don't know what the atmosphere is like in a middle school or high school setting during testing time, but the students at the elementary level but we are training our kids how to take a test rather than teaching them. Being a teacher is a very creative job that requires thinking quick and outside the box everyday no matter what grade you are teaching. This creativity has been lost since we began training children and stopped teaching them.
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