http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

:) Even if you do not agree with his point of view, you must concede that the video is surprisingly funny. I was not laughing at first, but I particularly found his comments about Shakespeare having an English teacher as both comical and insightful.

I think I may be jaded in this debate as a teacher of mathematics. I will concede that rote memorization and any "drill and kill" type exercises, when done regularly or too often, are not necessarily the best ways to teach children. Often times as educators we are taught so hard to keep the end in mind that we do lose sight of creativity. Buttressed by the recent movement to stress student achievement as it is imbued in test scores, often times teachers stress about and teach directly to state tests.

To begin, I agree to some extent that the American education system does stifle creativity in that it constrains what "success" looks like. Rather than play to multiple intelligences, a number of educational leaders decide what students need to complete in order to show that they have learned the appropriate amount of skills to move onto the next subject. Backing up a bit, let's look at an example of high school mathematics. In the state of Maryland, students are only tested in the area of Algebra I, but must pass the specific HSA Algebra exam. Having examined the test's trend over the past decade, it is clear as day that the test makers use and reuse either the exact same questions or questions that are very similar. When something that is so rote and contrived is stressed as the apex of a particular subject, something goes wrong. Teachers begin to teach students "how to pass the HSA" rather than how to think algebraically. Gone is most creative forms of algebraic reasoning and in is drills that stress the HSA. I know, I know, accountability and all that. But we won't go there now.

And sure, you could say that teachers could just allow students to explore the material in creative ways so that the material could be "over learned" (students skills will exceed that in the HSA). But given where our students currently are and the long laundry list of topics tested on the HSA exam...

In essence I do agree with Ken Robinson that schools do stymie creativity, but I am not sure I can see his specific vision on how school time should be spent. In order to both maximize our student's critical thinking skills and in order to prepare them for any future profession/life they want to lead, I do believe there is a base of skills all students should be equipped with. It is no "wonder" that in examining most of the world's educational systems that Sir Robinson found the same emphasis on core skills such as math. Maybe I don't have an "appreciation" for the arts, but I do not want my kid spending time everyday dancing AND drawing AND singing when there are plenty of more "academic" skills he or she could be spending time on. I do think it is overly simplistic to say that's what after school programs are for, however (what about students in under resourced areas?). However, I do believe that is (in a perfect world) when more "creative" things should be done. In a perfect world too every kid would want to engage in these activities in order to engage different intelligences.

Cross-disciplinary education would solve this problem (in particular, with time allotments). What about those student who are very good at expressing themselves through dance? There should be academic assignments tied to core subjects that allows students to both hone their academic skills (whether they be Language Arts, Social Studies, etc.) and their more "creative" skills (art, dance, etc.)