[Woodcarver] Creativity in schools

[dwarren1 at comcast.net]

I think many of todays schools do teach students to be creative.  They do not teach simple processes, but teach students how and where to find answers.  I work at a comprehensive technical high school that combines rigorous academics with technical education.  We purposely assign projects that allow students to be creative in their research and projects.  As long as high expectations/goals are set, and reinforcement is furnished, students can be creative while learning. This can be accomplished in spite of the No Child Left Behind accountability on testing scores. 
David Warren

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> > I think children are born with an instinctive desire to explore and to 
> > create. Watch a young boy or girl play in a sandbox, and they are very 
> > creative. One of the real problems, in my opinion of course, with our 
> > educational system, is that when they enter school, the process of 
> > suppressing all creativity begins. Educators want all of the children to 
> be 
> > good little robots, and do exactly what they are told, and nothing else. 
> 
> This, according to George B. Leonard is exactly the function of the schools. 
> Society cannot use a lot of free-wheeling, exploring individuals. We "say" 
> we want our schools to encourage creativity, but we act otherwise. What 
> society predominantly wants is workers who show up on time, do the 
> prescribed tasks, stay at their work stations for the prescribed hours, and 
> take orders from an authority figure. Recently a worker on an assembly line 
> left his position to go to the restroom and was fired because the whole 
> operation stopped until he got back. They teach that lesson in 
> kindergarten--you can't go to the restroom any time you want to! 
> 
> Children, in general, are born with untold capacities. From the time they 
> leave the womb they are molded--fed at a certain time, put to bed at a 
> certain time. Spoken to or ignored, propped up in front of the TV and left 
> to themselves or read to and sung to and given visual stimulus. Certain 
> behaviors get rewarded, certain behaviors get punished and certain behaviors 
> get ignored. Don't experts say that a child's personality is pretty much 
> formed by the time they are three? By the time a child enters school, 
> habits both constructive and destructive are pretty much ingrained. A child 
> that has been read to a lot, has learned to "mind" and was given many 
> sit-still games and activities at home is usually a successful student. A 
> child that has seldom been read to and was allowed to "roam" is less likely 
> to struggle in school. 
> 
> The educational system is faced with a huge struggle itself: their charge is 
> to educate everyone--bright kids, dull kids, kids born in rich environments, 
> kids born in impoverished ones, kids who grew up speaking English, kids who 
> can't speak English at all. Then they must prepare this conglomeration of 
> abilities--in clusters of 25-35 kids in a class--for a myriad of 
> occupations, from the simplest menial job to a "rocket scientist." In the 
> current educational model, there is not enough time and resources to do 
> "everything for everybody." While I strongly feel changes should be 
> made--though not the ones currently tossed about--considering the impossible 
> task schools have been given, they have done a pretty good job. 
> 
> Most creative persons have grown up in a creative environment and have been 
> successful in retaining that creativity against the pressures to "stay 
> within the lines," i.e. to conform. They have survived society's "weeding 
> out" system. 
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