In response to "Harrison Bergeron", our class asked if our society marginalizes our individuality for the sake of "equality". Well, let's explore a familar realm and decide if we are somehow taught to limit our creativity to achieve uniformity.
Please watch the following TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson entitled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" Here is a transcript for the speech.
Your job is to assess Robinson's argument. You have spent a massive portion of your life in school and so you are perfectly capable of weighing in on Robinson's ideas using your own experience as evidence. How does Robinson establish his point? Have you ever attend a class that stifled your sense of creativity? How do academic institution teach young people to become servile, complacent automatons? Or is your experience different? When have you been encouraged to express your creative, individualistic side? Do you feel as if you are free to explore your interests?
Let's not only analyze Robinson's ideas, but each others. Read your fellow commenters' words and chime in. Add a link to a releveant article and we'll respond. Get started!
In the TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, he believes that schools have been limiting the creative aspects of human beings. Through this talk Robinson establishes his point by giving a series of examples from his own life, through experiences and meeting people and from current statistics on the present day and future. As he mentions in his talk the main subjects of education no matter where you go is generally mathematics and languages and at the bottom is generally the arts. The arts in a sense are even separated again, to music and art being the top and drama and dance being the bottom. I do not quite agree with Robinson. In my years in the education system, in many different subjects I have been given the chance to be creative. Whether this creativity is allowed in projects for different subjects or part of an extracurricular activity it is still creativity, no matter where you find it. Many people may not agree with me, but I believe this because as an artist myself, I have seen many opportunities to express myself and show my talent. I have also seen many of my friends who are interested in other artistic departments such as music and drama, who are able to show their creativity in many school activities. Overall, though Robinson has a strong argument, I believe that schools do not suppress creativity.
ReplyDeleteThis is a link from NYTimes that shows the ideas of different kids on whether enough creativity is offered in their school: (scroll down to the comments)
ReplyDeletehttp://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/do-schools-provide-students-with-enough-opportunities-to-be-creative/?_r=0
Robinson argues that everyone has creativity and it is being limited by the hierarchy in school systems. He says that mathematics are encouraged while the arts are not as rigorously taught. This is due to a common belief that mathematics will prepare us for the future. However on some level, this is true. Mathematics and the sciences influences people's lives much more than drama. Personally, I have had different experiences based on my teachers and subjects. During my elementary and middle school years, i felt that a lot of options were not available to me. For example, band was only open to students who held a talent in the area, not to anyone who had a genuine passion for it. Something that quite irritates me about our education system is that we are expected to recreate labs, read the same famous literature, and basically follow the same loop. For example, which college graduate has not read "To Kill A Mocking Bird"? The same questions are repeated. We try to find meaning in the same book, millions of times, so that any meaning is stripped of it. It would be nice to have different types of books in our syllabus so we can have different viewpoints. (I might be ranting here, but I thought it was relevant) However, High school has presented with more possibilities. I can take subjects i would like to have. So, I must say that not all schools suppress your creativity.
ReplyDeletep.s. Courtney, the link you shared had interesting comments. Also, I recently saw the movie "3 Idiots" where the character goes to school not to get a degree , but for the joy of learning. He said "Make your passion your profession' So, if someone truly enjoys something, they shouldn't only look to schools to make their passion a reality.
I agree with both Janaat and Courtney. In Robinson's speech, he depicts education in schools as being suppressing to a student's natural talent or pursue in a subject, specifically Arts and Music. He establishes his idea by giving examples from his own life and experience. For example, he mentions a girl who is always unable to concentrate in classes and is always restless. She is brought a doctor, where she there discovers that she was a dancer. Thus, she was sent to dance school and became extremely successful in her future life. But, this is not always the case. I have been in school for almost all of my life now and, just as Courtney had said, that the assignments give a student chances to explore not only the fundamental subjects (math, english, social studies, etc), but also on other skills. These include communication, presentation, creativity/imagination, singing, dancing, and acting. For example, "Minutes", which is a mini speech that every student must give in our class. This assignment incorporates many aspects. First off, there is a basis, which is to write the paper. The student must use his/her Language skills to do so. Then, the student must be able to present it to the class in an orderly and organized fashion. He/She could utilize their speaking, acting, and creativity skills of doing so. And lastly, the "gift" portion, which is a chance for the student to present any talent or interesting skill (a painting, origami, etc). However, just as Janaat had mentioned, there is also the limitations that a school can put on you. For example, even in Stuyvesant, where the Band is only open to students who have prior experience on an instrument. If a student were to be interested in playing an instrument, they would not be permitted. Thus, the system is acting against them.
ReplyDeleteIn Sir Ken Robinson's Ted talk, he argues that schools limit our creativity. He talks about how nowadays, education systems judge a person's ability by how smart they are academically, and how the arts are generally less important to them than the sciences or humanities. He tells a story of an instance where because this girl was not limited to academics, she went on to becoming a multimillionaire and an extremely successful dancer. He explains how although the person her mother and her went to told her that she was a dancer, another doctor would probably just prescribe drugs and tell her to try harder.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this argument really varies depending on the school we are talking about. At my old school, we were learning in a more collaborative and hands-on manner. I remember one time in history, we were learning about American history, specifically the Declaration of Independence. To help us better understand what happened, the teacher had each class become the congress and read a script about the voting that occurred. However, in bigger schools like Stuyvesant, there is less room for creativity in everyday classes. Everyday, I walk into the math classroom. I sit down, copy down notes, listen to the teacher, and then I walk out. Same goes for history and biology. There are rarely any fun projects that help us understand the topic on a deeper level.
Also, Jannat, I also watched "Three Idiots" last year at my old school. It was a very entertaining and funny movie. I have also read "To Kill a Mockingbird".
Individuality, creativity, uniqueness, talents – those are what defines us. Those are what makes me – me, you – you. To say we are just stardust or humans composed of flesh and blood is simply an insult to our race. Yet, why is it the case that “we squander them (talents), pretty ruthlessly?” So my answer is yes, schools indeed limit creativity. Let’s jump back to the late 19th Century, specifically the year 1879. So you probably are thinking what makes this date so special…well, that’s the year Albert Einstein was born in. Now, Albert Einstein as many of you know was a genius – literally, a child prodigy from the very start. However, many are unaware of his early years. Einstein's formal education began at age six, when he enrolled in the Petersschule on Blumenstrasse, a Catholic elementary school in Munich. While Einstein did well, he was a quiet child who kept his distance from his peers. Overall, he was not at all happy. “The principle of absolute obedience” as well as “military drills” dominated the school's atmosphere. Finally, he couldn’t stand it. At the age of ten, Einstein dropped out of the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich, a formal and respected institution that emphasized Latin and Greek over mathematics and science, to take up his own studies. This here, is a perfect example of how schools suppress individuality, but more so, discourage students from coming to school in the first place.
ReplyDeleteWhile the education system has changed drastically since that time, I still feel like Albert in many of my classes. Take participation. Yes, I really like sharing my ideas, but there’s always a part of me holding me back from raising my hand at times. It’s the dreaded: “What if I’m wrong? Will I look like a fool?” And to make matters worse I’ve actually had teachers yell at me for having the wrong answer and then criticizing me the whole period. The worst part though, is when they compare me to other students in the class. As Ken Robinson said, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.” And while this is an idea constantly promoted from our parents, teachers, society as a whole: “Ask questions…Guess...Infer...Try your best,” explain coming home with that 88% or B- and having your parents interrogate you with the infamous: “Why not the A?”
This brings me to my next point – grades, every student’s worst nightmare. Whether they’re numbers or letters, they can be beyond frustrating. But are they truly helping kids? While some may argue that they motivate students to strive harder, what I feel they really promote is this misleading concept of perfection. Rather, students should be exposed to their passions and learn to accept themselves before taking pride in 100%. For at the end of the day, it’s you and only you who stands out – not the grades, not the clothes, but the individuality, creativity, uniqueness, and talents, the world can never replace.