中小学教育扼杀学生的创造力 Schools Stifle Creativity

Schools Stifle Creativity

Abstract

Creativity is essential in every aspect of daily work and study. Schools

should encourage and teach students to use their creative thinking, which

should have been one of the purposes of public education. However,

creativity is stifled and, not surprisingly, schools that comply with rigid

education system are to blame.

Key words: education, creativity, intelligence, academics, school

systems, standardized test, divergent thinking

Picasso once said that all children are born artists. We all approve of the

idea that children have their capabilities or innovation, but somehow they

lose them with gradual growth. I believe people get educated out of

creativity.

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson said, “We do not grow into creativity,

but we grow out of it.” It mainly roots in the educational situation. He

champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity

and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. In his speech about

education and creativity, with ample anecdotes and witty asides,

Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize --much

less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. Much of the content

of his speech was reflective of the way education has been structured,

which was considered as killing creativity.

Mr. Robinson has made me realize that what schools teach is in breach of

creativity. It is crazy to think that we are teaching kids for a future that

we can not even begin to make predictions about. For some reason

school systems are so dedicated to teaching facts, which leads to a fact

that children searching text for facts. Sadly the majority of these facts

can be found with a quick Google search. Obviously in some

circumstance we can not find answers or we are not sure about what the

facts are, but our schools also teach persuasively in their basic identical

way. For instance, how do we educate our children to take their place in

the economics of the 21st century, given that we can not anticipate what

the economy will look like at the end of next week? How can we do

that? Not only do schools do what they did in the past, but they alienate

many kids by criticizing them stupid boys. So what is the whole

purpose of public education throughout the world? Mr. Robinson said

the purpose is to produce university professors. To a certain extent it is

reasonable because generally people think children are not good enough

if they can not get all A in their examinations. Once addicted to some

special interest like hobbies concerning computer or music, they would

be forced to give them up and stick to study all the time. Undoubtedly

creativity is killed in the name of proper education.

As the development of economy, now the world becomes

economic

globalization, which makes dominant systems of education being rooted

in the values and demands of industrialism. It seems that every

education system all over the world has the same hierarchy of subjects.

The schools pay more attention to mathematics, sciences and languages,

and the arts are always at the bottom. There is no denying the fact that

learning mathematics and sciences are good for us to make our living in

the future. However, students spend much time just on mechanical

practice, which not only can not improve their intelligence but also lose

their creativity gradually. Have you ever noticed that many social,

economic, spiritual and environmental challenges we now face depend on

the very capacities of creativity? Therefore, education system should be

about developing human beings, and human development is not

mechanical or linear. It should be organic and dynamic.

In education, the emphasis on standardized testing such as the SAT in

USA and college entrance examination in China is typical exam-oriented

education. Under an obsessive culture of standardized testing and tight

financial pressures, many teachers just focus on the right answer to the

question especially on the multiple choice question rather than

encouraging students to think deeply and explore their interests in depth,

which hampers further creative thinking in students. It leads to a

disastrous waste of talent among students and their teachers. The

emphasis on testing and passing exams which are guarantees of entering

colleges often squeezes out the development of other vital skills, such as

creative thinking, collaborating or communicative skill. Now more and

more students going to college are just to get a higher degree in order to

entitle to the job requirement but not to develop their interests in what