Education vs. Creativity
I am now in my second week of the fall semester and already feeling the lack of creativity and motivation. This has always been an issue for me when it comes to school. I love English classes and art classes where free thinking is encouraged and there isn't just one right answer. However, that is not the case in every English class and even in art classes. It really all comes down to the teacher.
Most teachers at my college are there for the paycheck and to have paid time off in the summer. Which would be fine if they were passionate about teaching and about the subject. All too often teachers expect you to memorize some terms and formulas, throw them into a couple multiple choice tests and there's the semester. Creativity is often frowned upon in education because there's always a right answer and a correct way of getting there. I have always gotten good grades and have preformed well in school, but honestly, it's because I'm good at memorizing definitions and remembering how to get to answer just in time for the test. Then I forget about it. I never actually learned anything because I just remembered how my teacher wanted me to do it and then never thought about it again.
Students need to be taught the process of things and why there isn't always a right way to get to an answer, there might be a lot of different ways, and that becomes more creative. Art classes aren't the only subject where creativity can be used. For example, I am a very visual learner, so in a math class, I can't just sit there and take notes from a textbook I need to see how the formulas flow and what the graphs look like and see them plotted and drawn.
In his TED Talk, Ken Robertson said "we don't grow into creativity we grow out of it" and the educational system is the main reason why that happens. Our schools are draining the creativity from kids by giving these standardized tests where there are only one right answer and one right way of getting to that answer.
Our society is changing and welcoming people into the job force with creative minds. Creativity is being sought out in candidates because companies are starting to realize that they need inventive and new ideas to reach their audience and customers. When our educational system is discouraging creativity and withdrawing funding from the arts, they are hurting the students in the long run. A new wave of jobs and opportunities, based on creativity, are coming our way but if schools don't make a change, their students will not be prepared.