Maakestad 1 Hannah Maakestad E. L. Ziemba English Composition II 13 May 2014 Creativity: Revolutionizing Education Introduction: The education system in America has become too big, and too standardized. With the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB,) by the Bush administration, focus in schooling narrowed to the “so-called STEM disciplines,” standing for science, technology, engineering, and math, as the most important subjects (“How to Escape”). Statewide and national testing was called for to assess students and teachers in the hope of raising performance in schools that were falling behind. Each state was called upon to reach certain academic goals judged with the use of standardized tests. However, this pressure from the federal government to reach “100 percent proficiency” did not improve test scores; in fact, in many cases, these scores were lowered (Ravitch).
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Maakestad 1
Hannah Maakestad
E. L. Ziemba
English Composition II
13 May 2014
Creativity: Revolutionizing Education
Introduction:
The education system in America has become too big, and
too standardized. With the implementation of No Child Left
Behind (NCLB,) by the Bush administration, focus in
schooling narrowed to the “so-called STEM disciplines,”
standing for science, technology, engineering, and math, as
the most important subjects (“How to Escape”). Statewide and
national testing was called for to assess students and
teachers in the hope of raising performance in schools that
were falling behind. Each state was called upon to reach
certain academic goals judged with the use of standardized
tests. However, this pressure from the federal government to
reach “100 percent proficiency” did not improve test scores;
in fact, in many cases, these scores were lowered (Ravitch).
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Though the American government has made sweeping changes to
the education system, and has lowered class sizes more than
most countries, the results have been suboptimal. The United
States may spend more money per student than most countries,
but according to the Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) “higher expenditure on education is not
highly predictive of better… scores” (“How to Escape”;
Ryan). This is clearly demonstrated by America’s math
ranking of twenty-sixth out of thirty-four countries
involved with PISA. Public education in the United States
needs to be completely rethought, taken out of the federal
government’s hands, and replaced by a system with a renewed
emphasis on creativity and innovation to prepare students
for an uncertain and challenging future.
History Of Public Education:
Public education in America first started during the
Enlightenment Period and was refined during the Industrial
Revolution in the late nineteenth century (“Changing
Education Paradigms”). Before this time, education was
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strictly for the wealthy. The idea of a whole population of
educated people seemed not only inconceivable, but also
impossible. During the late nineteenth century, education
was mainly about learning to read and write, basic
mathematics, and preparing students to enter the factory
work force. Though the world’s culture and job market have
drastically changed since the introduction of public
education, the system has remained almost exactly the same.
In fact, the structure of education itself is quite like a
factory: students are educated in batches by age, as if the
most important part of each student is their “manufacture
date.” There are “separate facilities, specialized into
separate subjects”, and bell systems, which was how
factories originally controlled their workers (“Changing
Education Paradigms”). In an industrial age this was a great
system that truly did prepare students for the work
available to them after graduating, but it has not evolved
with the present, and will fail students in the future. The
creation of public education was a revolution in itself,
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brought on by the economic need for industrial workers. If
nothing else, education needs to be revolutionized again for
the same reason—economics. We live in a constantly changing
technology-intensive world, and therefore need an innovative
educational system, which will best benefit that type of
market.
Relation Between Intelligence And Creativity:
The link between intelligence and creativity is largely
unknown today, but that does not mean they are not
symbiotic. Intelligence is defined as the ability to acquire
and utilize knowledge (“Intelligence”). With education as it
is today, students do learn how to acquire and memorize
knowledge, but often do not learn how to actually utilize
this knowledge outside of taking a test. Students are taught
that there is only one right answer to every problem, and
that the answer is usually “C” on a bubble sheet answer
card. Unfortunately, this standard of right and wrong—black
and white—does not hold up to the reality of the world we
live in, where most decisions fall in the shades of grey
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between. Being wrong, and making mistakes, should not be
stigmatized for students, for it discourages students from
thinking critically, and finding new answers that may not
fall under A, B, C, or D (“Do Schools Kill Creativity?”). If
Thomas Edison had grown up this way, the light bulb may have
never come to fruition. But as Edison said, “I have not
failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000
ways to not make a light bulb." Sometimes being wrong is the
only way to learn something new, in fact, being wrong is a
quite important part of creative problem solving—just ask
Thomas Edison.
Creativity Explained:
Creativity is a term for which there is no universally
agreed upon meaning, but one definition states that it is
“the ability to come up with new ideas through a mental
process of connecting existing concepts” (Christensen). So,
in order for students to truly utilize the knowledge and
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concepts they acquire in school, their creativity must also
be nourished along side their intelligence, and should be
given just as much attention. Educator Sir Ken Robinson’s
definition for creativity is the process of coming up with
“original ideas that have value” (“Do Schools Kill
Creativity?”). This is an important distinction because many
people have the misconception that creativity simply applies
to the arts, but creativity can—and should—be utilized in
all subjects in school. Integrating more creatively fueled
classes into school curriculums teaches students that
“creativity takes many forms” and can be “applied in all
aspects of life” to imagine new solutions to unsolved
problems (Allbritten).
Current Issues In Education:
Our outdated educational system is past the point of
reform—it needs to be rebooted and revolutionized. Today,
public schools are rewarded and punished based on
standardized test scores, which arguably do not accurately
assess learning (Popham). Though these assessments evaluate
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basic knowledge of subjects, “qualitative evaluation is
neglected,” including important variables like homework and
class participation. This type of evaluation is more
important to overall education, and the “goal of promoting
development” than “quantifiable evaluation,” like that of