Have you ever heard someone criticize the "Younger Generation" for how they act? Well, the stereotypical dull laziness may be due to a lack of creativity in the classroom.
As senior in high school, my father had the opportunity to be the new physics teacher, though he knew little concerning the subject. Why did they give him the job if he wasn't qualified? His ability to teach. He believed that any problem could be solved through hard work and creative thinking.
Occasionally there would be a math question that would confuse the class–including my father. He assured us that we could find the solution if we put our heads together and came up with possible equations. A handful of students would gather around his desk and throw out ideas and corrections until they came up with an answer they all agreed on. Meanwhile, the majority of students (including myself) just sat and talked with one another, waiting for the "smart kids" and the teacher to present us the answer. Because we weren't given a solid process to solve the problem, It was troublesome to accomplish it ourselves.
Why was it so simple for my class to shut down and not bother finding a solution? I believe the importance of test scores becoming and increasingly high priority in the world of education, is crushing the creativity of students. They are taught to memorize and perform, and when that familiar formula is changed, it creates the illusion that the problem is too challenging.
For example, in my sophomore biology class, we took repetitive online practice tests to prove we were "learning" the curriculum. However, we found that if we could memorize the first few words of the question and its solution, we could later pass the real test with flying colors. If there was an unfamiliar question I hadn't memorized earlier, I'd say to myself, 'I can't do this one,' and move on. When for years you lay out not only one possible answer, but the entire process in front of a student, it smothers their creativity. They lose the ability to solve problems on their own.
You may have heard of a creativity test called the Torrance Test, or perhaps taken versions of it on YouTube. The Torrance Test (also known as TTCT) is a series of tasks that assess creative skills such as originality, emotional expressiveness, and imagery, as well as divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is the ability of the brain to take a problem, and come up with various solutions.
Kyung Hee Kim, a creative researcher from the College of William and Mary, published an article regarding the test. In her essay, "The Creativity Crisis: The Decrease in Creative Thinking Scores on the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking," she writes that IQ and SAT scores have been increasing rapidly since 1990. However, on the flip side, TTCT scores have been dropping. Kim also says that the decrease is greatest at the fourth grade level, when education starts to become more rigorous and conforming.
Being a graduate of a Western public school, I was able to personally experience how the emphasis on grades and testing hurts creativity. I am not saying I had a horrible education, but I believe it would have been more effective had education been approached in a more open, creative manner. Had I needed to problem-solve for myself more often, such as in twelfth grade physics, I might have had greater skill in divergent thinking. It's those lessons I remember, not the facts I memorized.
The question comes to mind: Will the states continue to drill facts into the brains of students, or will we begin to allow more imagination in the classroom? As for me, I will hope for the latter.
