Thread: Do schools kill creativity?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE...eature=channel

Stumbled across this lecture accidentally and must say I really enjoyed it. Thoughts?

I don have time to watch the video, I have to go to work, but I think yes, especially little kids. My mom works as a teacher assistant and one story she told me is that one of the special kids drew a picture of the school, the teacher made her draw another picture because she put the door on the wrong side of the school 0,o my sister remembers this one time when they were drawing pictures of what they were going to do for the summer and she drew a picture of our family jumping into the pool and the teacher said it was stupid because all our clothes were on. I remember on time I was reading an Ispy book and I was trying to find an M but I couldn't, so I turned the book upsidedown and started looking for a W, my teacher got mad at me (she though I was special).

I actually stumbled across that exact same lecture some time ago.

I have to say that schools do kill creativity. It's because of the cookie-cutter society we all live in. It simply doesn't accommodate for people who think differently or have different needs.

I see myself as an example of how society antagonizes creative people/different thinkers. I feel particularly touched by this video because when I was young they wanted to put me medication for ADHD or ADD or something of the sort. I applaud my mother for making the decision not to put me on those drugs. Throughout my life I've always been branded as 'different' by my peers, teachers and even my entire family in a positive or negative context. For quite some time this fact left me feeling completely alienated from my fellow human because I never understood why.

When somebody stole my awesome sculpture I made in art class, one of the kids told me that I could just make another one. I wanted to slap him.

I remember seeing that a while back but I didn't remember much about it, except that it must be good because I favorited it, so I just watched it again. First off, very funny speaker. The one point that really struck me was the story towards the end about the girl who was a dancer. Today kids are thrown on so many drugs just because they can't sit still to learn.

I am considered one of the "smart kids" at school because I get good grades, however there are people who do much worse in school that I consider of greater intelligence than me. People who can write music better than me, people who can take things apart and fix them then rebuild them in ways I wouldn't even consider. There is a girl at school who is a typical blonde who is often way off the mark with answers and ideas but they are so unique that I would pick her for a brainstorming team way before I'd pick most of the other "smart kids".

One thing that I also thought of is a thread that i saw at the Ultimate Guitar forums a few days ago. It was a long thread about whether knowing music theory stifles creativity in song writing. This isn't quite exactly the same as what the video was discussing but it can be approached from a similar perspective. Of course knowing music theory allows a musician to more easily express the ideas in his head because he knows how that sound in his head is represented.

The problem is when a musician relies too much on making things musically correct. This could be compared to how schools are teaching, basically that in order to succeed you need to be good at this and that and do them correctly, while wasting your time on other things isn't as productive.

All of this can come down to being freethinking to break from the system. The problem here is that by the time someone is old enough to realize that the system is corrupt they are probably already many years into their schooling.

I would say another problem is the exposure that kids get to things such as music and art at a young age in school is often negative. In elementary school in art class you build ugly houses out of construction paper and in music class you sing silly songs in high pitched voices. Then you go to middle school and are forced to try to draw using exact skills and produce art that is attractive and "correct" while in music you are forced to learn the names and works of people have been long dead, as well as other confusing ideas that will be easily forgotten. In my school district art and musical classes are electives in high school so most students don't take them because of the negative prior experiences. Students feel as if they don't have the skill to succeed in art or music because they didn't get an earlier start and did poorly in middle school. Of course this is far from the truth and it is very easy to become proficient in art or music in just a few years if you start during high school. Another part of it is that the mind has developed farther which makes art and music easier.

Do schools kill creativity? Yes but only for students who dn't recognize their own potential. Of course this is most students because schools don't try to help students succeed. Of course there are some amazing teachers out there who have good influences but I would dare to say that most teachers don't do a very good job of this. I'm a senior in high school right now and in a class we will spend a week or two getting notes on the current chapter and then we will take a test on it. I don't particularly focus on learning the stuff as we take notes on it in class so I end up basically memorizing the whole chapter the night before the test. That basically means that I could have done that much sooner. I wish that teachers would just give us the notes of exactly we need to learn and then help us apply the concepts better. Unfortunately it seems to be very true that "those who can, do. Those who can't, teach".

I feel that most time in school is wasted time because of the many hours spent at school each day I would say that on a good day there is only maybe 2-3 hours at most of actual well spent learning time, and thats being generous.

Schooling systems are in desperate need of reformation. It is hard to be successful in life when schools don't teach how life really is. Fortunately I believe that students can themselves work hard and learn and do what is actually important and relevent to their interests in order to succeed how they wish.

Yes.

All creative activities we're given in my school are under a time limit. I(and many others) just can't be as creative as I want when I'm given a deadline!

The part of the vid that affected me the most was when he said that people discourage kids from art, music, etc saying things like, "oh it's not like you'll ever be a musician..." That's definitely happened to most of us, hasn't it!

I remember in high school we had many choices in terms of art and music classes, but we could only fit one (or two tops) into our schedules.


"those who can, do. Those who can't, teach".

Yikes, that's a really pessimistic quote, and I'm gonna have to disagree with it. Although to be fair I'm thinking of my college professors, not high school teachers, when I say that.

I like the challenge of it all.

When given uncreative boring tasks, making something wonderful and beautiful and different of it, whilst remaining within the rules.

its quite creative.

Nothing has sparked my creativity like the boredom and stupidity of most classes in school. I drew lots of stuff, composed melodies and wrote nonsensical texts.

In university, I barely get to draw at all because I'm actually interested in the subject.

So if anything, universities stifle creativity.

The only creative task I have ever undertaken in accordance with school was the creation of a modern theatre-adaption of Othello.

I don't think I have ever been discouraged from being creative :/ but I do feel like kids nowadays are. Society wants everybody to be all perfect and boring and average.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE...eature=channel

Stumbled across this lecture accidentally and must say I really enjoyed it. Thoughts?

yes, they do....so stop teaching and start modeling

If Einstein were hypothetically a drop-out, that would say essentially nothing about the education system. Because that is anecdotal evidence, i.e., not real evidence.

I was fortunate to have several teachers who were able to teach their subject, without having to worry about jumping through the hoops that the UK education system insisted upon. They were there of course, but because the classes I happened to be in were overall, intelligent, we could cover extra material. I was also fortunate enough to have several teachers who encouraged critical and free thinking, and learning about ideas and concepts that were not required.

The UK's system is a disgrace at the moment. It's filled with rote-learning mostly unrelated arbitrary facts without teaching critical thinking and understanding of the concepts behind the facts.

But certainly in many areas of the UK education system, creativity has no place. Neither do many other valuable skills. The entire system is geared around teaching students how to pass exams. And it needs to change.

Hell, even art class does. They give you all of these specific requirements and rules, every child's piece looks the same.

Originally Posted by Eric

Hell, even art class does. They give you all of these specific requirements and rules, every child's piece looks the same.

I hadn't thought about that... hmmmm...