Design by Zoe Gordon
Creativity Students debate whether the school system restricts or encourages development of creativity
student to explore their interests. The debate over whether or not school helps or hinders students’ creativity has yet to be settled, especially among students themselves. Creative thinking can be defined he imagination of a child knows as “making new connections between no bounds. Whether it includes different regions of the brain, which is carelessly finger painting a canvas with a rainbow of colors, accomplished by cultivating divergent building a Lego tower so tall and believing thinking skills and deliberately exposing ourselves to new experiences and to it is a skyscraper, or playing on a swing set and feeling only a short distance away from the sun and moon, the creative times of childhood gradually fade by the neverending demands of adulthood. As a child grows up, they can feel like just another number in the school system. Students go to school five days a week for seven hours each day, typically sitting in rows of desks, staring at a teacher learning,” according to Psychology Today. lecturing. Some students believe that their According to “Imagine: How Creativity creativity levels depend on the classroom Works,” by Jonah Lehrer, a Contributing environment and teacher with whom Editor at Scientific American Mind, a they are learning from. These kinds of child’s self-perception of their creativity students tend prefer interactive activities declines significantly from when they with other students, rather than typical start kindergarten to when they reach powerpoint presentations. high school. “If you are sitting at desks, you only The reasons why a child may feel less talk to the other person to ask them a creative as they grow up can may stem question about the work, but if you are from the institution of school itself, as well as the growing feelings of insecurity all forced to sit at a large group table, it allows for more social interaction and about having to find a more realistic creative ideas to flow from person to career. person,” junior Stacie Sayers said. However, this can not account for Other students see the importance those who believe that school is a place of lesson plans and organization in a where creativity lets loose and allows an open space for them to find their passions classroom setting. According to a blog by Concordia University Portland, creating in life. Schools provide many interactive “learning stations” instead of rows of activities and extracurricular clubs for
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Graphic by Nyan Clarke
in the classroom
desks helps to maximize creative learning. “Some teachers will give you activities that allow for creativity to flow and others give you assignments that restrict creativity,” junior Hailey Carpenter said. “I hope to be a teacher when I’m older. It makes me want to allow for more freedom on assignments that would promote creativity rather than restrict it. When a classroom limits creativity, most students don’t want to do the assignment since
arts route; other kids may like cooking; while others may like marketing. High school provides such a different type of curriculum, and it allows students to maybe pick a niche or even experiment with what they may want to be creative with to make a determination with what they want to do with their lives.” However, some students insist that school greatly limits their abilities to be creative and successful. A portion of students feel this way because they are required to take core classes each year, even if they are not interested in them. When they are out of the school environment, these students flourish significantly, finding interests that they excel in. “[In school] you are focusing on academics, and you don’t really have time they can’t have fun with it.” to really express yourself fully, especially Carpenter discovered her profound if you are just taking mostly core classes. passion in the school system last year. You are kind of focused on only one While in the exploratory teaching course thing, not what you want to be doing,” offered at MSD, she quickly became class of 2016 alumnus Kamil Kisielewicz interested in the idea of becoming a said. “I found my passion [for writing and teacher when she grew up. This led her to photography] when I was out of school. I become president of the MSD chapter of found it through exposing myself through Florida Future Educators of America this new things every day.” school year. Students view their school in regards Along with students like Carpenter, to creativity either negatively or Principal Ty Thompson believes that high positively. While the ones that look at the school provides the resources for students educational system with a pessimistic to expand upon their interests. attitude tend to view school as a “waste of “The nice thing about high school time,” the optimistic thinkers believe that is that it gives kids a large variety of high school gives them the ability to step opportunities to explore certain things outside of their comfort zones and dabble which allows them to be creative in their in different subject areas to discover their own way,” Thompson said. “Some kids interests before college. Story by Zoe may be good in arts, so they take the Gordon
The nice thing about high school is that it gives kids a large variety of opportunities to explore certain things which allows them to be creative in their own way.
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Express Yourself • Creativity in School 29
