Schools Kill Creativity?

Do they? Ken Robinson and everyone who's posted so far seems to think so. I would have to say that I agree. The following are discussions on the blog postings of 3 of my fellow classmates:

Angela brings up the idea of how schools are structured to make their students believe that math and science are "part of a balanced education, and if [they're] not good at it, then there is something wrong with [them]". After hearing Robinson's talk, Angela wonders why she had to be forced to learn science as opposed to an art class. As she puts it,"Who gets to decide that math and science are better than art? And are they really better?"I agree with Angela in that society tells us that they are better and more valuable. But why force students to learn a subject that they don't like? Why not instead expose students to as much as possible to allow them to find out what they like and are good at? Don't get me wrong, I think that math and science are important and should be a requirement; However, I think that art classes should also be a requirement. (You can check out Angela's blog at the following link: http://angeladodge.blogspot.com/)

Alli also addresses the idea of art never really being stressed as an important core class like Math and English are. At her Junior High, students were only allowed to take one art class each quarter, while other non-art subjects were mandatory. I agree with Alli in that schools are limiting the opportunities for students to explore the arts. As Robinson states, society tells us "don't do art, you're not going to be an artist". So why have students take classes in a subject that isn't going to be important to their future? But that's not true! The arts are just as important as math and science! In fact, they go hand in hand. Without the advances made in math and science, we wouldn't have music. Without music we wouldn't need radios, ipods, etc.(You can check out Alli's blog at the following link: http://noodle55.wordpress.com/)

Finally, Jen comments on how children today are afraid to be wrong. I totally agree with this. I sometimes feel this way! As Robinson says, this is killing creativity since students are scared to think outside of the box to come up with possible solutions. We need to encourage students to think outside the box and experiment. Without creativity, we wouldn't come up with new technologies. (You can check out Jen's blog at the following link: http://acttwointermission.blogspot.com/)

So to sum up, I agree with Robinson, Angela, Alli, and Jen that schools are killing creativity. How will this affect me in my future teachings? I will most certainly try to encourage creativity in the classroom! How? Good question. I definitely want to create a more hands-on type of math classroom. I remember when learning about tessellations, my math teacher had us create one ourselves, thus incorporating art into the math classroom. I think if I can bring in art aspects to help teach math, I most certainly will!