Fundamentals killing creativity

Following watching Sir Ken Robinson in his TED Talk "Do schools kill creativity?" I began reflecting on my first year of teaching my own classroom, as well as the previous three years I spent as a substitute. I realized that the majority of my teaching is scripted for me, and that's how I was taught throughout my pre-teaching experience. Up until my senior year of my student teaching internship, I hadn't thought about planning and designing things on my own. When I did design projects where the students were in charge of their learning, I felt that I was reaching their creative minds. 

Howard Gardner describes the creating mind as one that builds upon the disciplined, or mastered, mind and the synthesizing. The creating mind is the breaking ground for the formation of new ideas, unfamiliar questions, fresh ways of thinking, and reaching unexpected answers. It seeks to remain at least one step ahead of computers and robots and is not yet rule governed (Gardner, 2008, p.3). 

I no longer feel that I am reaching my students creative minds, but I feel that Sir Ken Robinson had a very valid point, in that creativity and the arts are pushed further and further away with math, language arts, and social sciences being the focus. I initially thought, as a teacher, it was my job to ensure that my students were strong in those areas in order to prepare them for life after school. But what type of life would that be? Are all of my students ready to join a particular trade or workforce where only those skills are applicable or ready to get a college degree in which they will need to continue schooling, most likely in those subjects which are held to a hierarchy? Realistically, no, they are not ready nor will they all choose that path, and that is not wrong. Our schools are so focused on math, sciences and language that we are not enabling students to choose their interests, in which they are academically strong, to pursue which would enable their creative mind. Therefore, I do believe that we are killing their creativity. So, now what? Well, as Sir Ken Robinson said, we need to rethink fundamentals and see creative capacities for what they are so THEY (the students) can make the future, because we can't say that we will be there, but they will (Robinson, 2007). 

If my current district had a 1:1 technology initiative then I feel it would enable me to enrich my students' creative minds. With there being a lack of that currently, I will have to be creative myself and design ways to encourage this in my students and not take away from it. I would utilize the devices to bring digital media stations and centers into the classroom which would allow the students to be in the drivers seat of their education. Ideally, students could start by reading the text for the day or watching videos/podcasts which would introduce the lesson. Students would be able to work at their own pace. I would be available for their questions, comments, concerns, but they would also have the devices to use that they could further research those questions. Following their lesson, students could choose from a selection of activities or projects that would assess their understanding of the content or create their own piece that would still show that they have synthesized the information learned. This would give me the opportunity to be there for their questions and concerns through their learning process, as well as put the students in charge of their learning. Through these minor changes and adjustments in my teaching, I would be enabling students to take a chance where there wouldn't be a wrong way to reach the end goal, and in turn encouraging their creative minds.

Resources:

Gardner, H. (2008). Five minds for the future. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Google Image Search: Creativity (for quote and mind map)

Robinson, Ken. [TED Talks]. (2007, January 6). Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY