Are Schools Killing Your Child’s Creativity?

It’s no secret that America’s students are slipping in core areas such as math and science, especially when compared to other countries such as Singapore and Finland.  But what may be even more alarming is that students are losing more than just a top spot in international rankings: according to new research, their capacity for creativity has been in steady decline.

Newsweek reports that creativity scores, determined through a surprisingly accurate test developed by E. Paul Torrance in the late 1950s, rose at a similar rate as IQ scores until 1990. Then, they began to drop.

What happened in 1990? The Reds won the World Series, Die Hard 2 was released, and a hole in the ozone layer was discovered.  But the drop in creativity scores is most likely linked to changes in educational methodology that ushered in the era of standards and accountability, squeezing out other modes of learning that include collaborative problem-solving, intellectual exploration and artistic opportunity.

Sir Ken Robinson, an expert in creativity and education, gave a now famous presentation at the 2006 TED conference in which he suggested that the way our education system is designed may be killing children's creativity.

Schooling as it is now, he suggested, is designed as a kind of conveyor belt with college and eventual employment as the goal. But by narrowing the focus of education to such areas as math and languages, and focusing the method of instruction on rote learning and preparation for the barrage of tests most children endure, we are educating people out of their creative capacities. "Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth: for a particular commodity,” he said.

Most would argue that 'creative' activities such as art, music and dance are all well and good, but for kids who can't read or understand simple arithmetic, the core curriculum must take precedent. But creativity is more than just art: it's innovative thinking, whether that means coming up with a novel scientific hypothesis, creating a new mathematical proof, or even devising on-the-fly solutions to, say, a devastating underwater oil leak.

Creativity is the ability to form new solutions to old problems, and it's something we could all use a bit more of. And that means making room for more creative play, problem-based learning, and out-of-the-box thinking by teachers and students alike.

"We have built our education systems on the model of fast-food," said Robinson in a 2010 follow-up to his original talk. "And it's impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies."

Photo credit: Horia Varlan