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Page Smith wrote a classic on the subject, called "Killing the Spirit." Only teachers invested in the system or teacher's unions would say that schools don't kill creativity. Sit in a chair for six hours a day, don't move, don't speak unless someone demands you to . . .study stuff you could not care less about, and memorize facts, lots of facts.
Oh, and then do hours upon hours of homework, even though it has been proven rote memorization and homework for the sake of homework does nothing positive for children/teens . . . and conversely, cuts into their personal lives where they otherwise might be able to dream, play sports, play with friends, learn an instrument, have fun, spend time with family, eat dinner, relax, go to bed at a decent hour, etc.
Page Smith wrote a classic on the subject, called "Killing the Spirit." Only teachers invested in the system or teacher's unions would say that schools don't kill creativity. Sit in a chair for six hours a day, don't move, don't speak unless someone demands you to . . .study stuff you could not care less about, and memorize facts, lots of facts.
Oh, and then do hours upon hours of homework, even though it has been proven rote memorization and homework for the sake of homework does nothing positive for children/teens . . . and conversely, cuts into their personal lives where they otherwise might be able to dream, play sports, play with friends, learn an instrument, have fun, spend time with family, eat dinner, relax, go to bed at a decent hour, etc.
Have you been in any schools lately?
My children's elementary schools do not have anyone sitting for 6 hours and they don't demand no talking except when the kids are working on something they have to do alone. Much of the work is done in cooperative groups with kids moving around the room to different stations. My granddaughter is in 3rd grade which is the first *testing* grade here in Texas. She still has only a little homework - a couple of pages of math work per week, one spelling activity she has to complete (she does more because it helps her study for the spelling test) and a reading log to complete each week. She is supposed to read for at least 2 hours per week. That's 20 minutes or so per day. I don't really like reading logs, but we encourage her to just read what she wants and then add the books to the log without much worry about the time.
Much of her work does NOT involve memorizing facts (the math does to an extent, but not other subjects). They explore science in a science *lab.* They read and write about social studies. They do a lot of story writing too.
She also takes piano lessons, does art work, plays with her brother, dad and mom and nana and poppop. She also has time to play with friends at the bus stop after school. She also does girl scouts. Her brother is only in kindergarten and he is autistic, so much of these things do not apply to him, but his K teacher is fantastic and he moves around a lot in her classroom too.
Page Smith wrote a classic on the subject, called "Killing the Spirit." Only teachers invested in the system or teacher's unions would say that schools don't kill creativity. Sit in a chair for six hours a day, don't move, don't speak unless someone demands you to . . .study stuff you could not care less about, and memorize facts, lots of facts.
Oh, and then do hours upon hours of homework, even though it has been proven rote memorization and homework for the sake of homework does nothing positive for children/teens . . . and conversely, cuts into their personal lives where they otherwise might be able to dream, play sports, play with friends, learn an instrument, have fun, spend time with family, eat dinner, relax, go to bed at a decent hour, etc.
The view of schools you are presenting is somewhat outdated. Your description more accurately describes schools around maybe 1910-1920 or so. Like most extremist statements, you gleefully throw out the baby with the bathwater: there is, of course, a great deal of value in some rote memorization of fundamental facts -- and as "Schoolhouse Rock" has demonstrated abundantly, it need not be painless nor dull.
(Actually, one issue many homeschoolers have had with schools is that they require too little rote memorization, particularly of multiplication tables, but this is another issue altogether, and I don't wish to get the discussion off-track.)
Sometimes schools do assign homework for homework's sake, but this is by no means always true, even of multiple teachers within one school.
My suggestion? Visit some schools, dial back on the extremist statements, and question your existing assumptions, recognizing that no one single educational method -- no matter how much you or I may be devoted to our personal favorites -- works perfectly for all students at all times.
That's ridiculous. I have a higher education and studied this subject thoroughly. And I worked and volunteered in schools. I actually know what I am talking about.
The "school SYSTEM" is a dismal failure. It more closely resembles a a prison system. Most schools are ugly and uninspiring. Creativity in young humans is stifled, critical thinking is pretty much forbidden . . . it is "go with the program" of indoctrination. Be a good soldier. Do what the teacher tells you. They open your head up and pour "facts" in . . . "facts" that are often incorrect (like Columbus "discovered" America).
Horrible. Slave camps. No wonder we are falling behind. We raise robots and bore the crap out of them. You can hardly think once you have graduated from high school.
That's ridiculous. I have a higher education and studied this subject thoroughly. And I worked and volunteered in schools. I actually know what I am talking about.
The "school SYSTEM" is a dismal failure. It more closely resembles a a prison system. Most schools are ugly and uninspiring. Creativity in young humans is stifled, critical thinking is pretty much forbidden . . . it is "go with the program" of indoctrination. Be a good soldier. Do what the teacher tells you. They open your head up and pour "facts" in . . . "facts" that are often incorrect (like Columbus "discovered" America).
Horrible. Slave camps. No wonder we are falling behind. We raise robots and bore the crap out of them. You can hardly think once you have graduated from high school.
How would you propose schools foster creativity? What would schools look like if you could redesign them? How would you maintain order while allowing students to speak freely? How would you teach without requiring students learn things they don't want to?
And I have to disagree. We don't pour facts in. The only place I've seen that in education is in history class when you memorize names and dates. I teach science. I want my students to understand. They, however, would prefer I just pour in facts. They don't like being asked to think.
The reason we are falling behind isn't our schools. They are, remarkably, simlilar to the countries we are falling behind . It's our attitude about education. It's this idea that eduation needs to suit ME. That I count more than anything. Countries that successfully educated have populations that value education and students who consider it their job to learn. They are team players while we make education an individual sport.
If we copied successful nations, we'd have our kids in school more days per year and kids would go to school on Saturday if they fell behind and teachers teaching the same subject would deliver the same lecture on the same day (a lock stepped system). Mastery of the material presented would be required. Students who didn't attain mastery would either drop out of school or be sent to trade schools. In the most successful countries, the right to be creative comes many years after your formal education is done. After you finish school, you will learn your trade at the feet of the masters. Only when you have become a master yourself are you allowed to be creative and speek freely.
We attempt to educate everyone (other countries do not) and we value the individual and not culture. Unfortunately, there is no way for a public education system that is serving a large population to individualize and cater to each individual. And, frankly, we wouldn't want that. One thing education must do is get kids ready to go out into the real world and it will not cater to them.
Personally, I find that true creativity is born out of expertise. I had to learn a lot of engineering before I was, remotely, ready to get creative with it. I have no idea how people think you can teach creativity first. You can't. Creativity without core knowledge of what you're trying to be creative with is a prescription for disaster. It was an issue I dealt with every day as an automotive design engineer. The studio designers had no clue how to actually make a car yet they wanted to be creative in styling. I spent most of my time in the studio explaining why we can't do it that way. The design process could go four times faster if the stylists actually had a clue as to what it took to actually make the parts those cars are made of.
Personally, I find that true creativity is born out of expertise. I had to learn a lot of engineering before I was, remotely, ready to get creative with it. I have no idea how people think you can teach creativity first. You can't. Creativity without core knowledge of what you're trying to be creative with is a prescription for disaster. It was an issue I dealt with every day as an automotive design engineer. The studio designers had no clue how to actually make a car yet they wanted to be creative in styling. I spent most of my time in the studio explaining why we can't do it that way. The design process could go four times faster if the stylists actually had a clue as to what it took to actually make the parts those cars are made of.
You mean that knowing the tensile strength of steel might be crucial to the manner in which an automobile can be designed!!! Ahhh, you murderer of the creative spirit, with your Gradgrindian insistence that creative minds know the irreducible facts of physics! Dammit, if I want to build a car out of adobe bricks that goes a hundred miles an hour on square wheels, I WILL DO IT. </sarcasm>
How would you propose schools foster creativity? What would schools look like if you could redesign them? How would you maintain order while allowing students to speak freely? How would you teach without requiring students learn things they don't want to?
And I have to disagree. We don't pour facts in. The only place I've seen that in education is in history class when you memorize names and dates. I teach science. I want my students to understand. They, however, would prefer I just pour in facts. They don't like being asked to think.
The reason we are falling behind isn't our schools. They are, remarkably, simlilar to the countries we are falling behind . It's our attitude about education. It's this idea that eduation needs to suit ME. That I count more than anything. Countries that successfully educated have populations that value education and students who consider it their job to learn. They are team players while we make education an individual sport.
If we copied successful nations, we'd have our kids in school more days per year and kids would go to school on Saturday if they fell behind and teachers teaching the same subject would deliver the same lecture on the same day (a lock stepped system). Mastery of the material presented would be required. Students who didn't attain mastery would either drop out of school or be sent to trade schools. In the most successful countries, the right to be creative comes many years after your formal education is done. After you finish school, you will learn your trade at the feet of the masters. Only when you have become a master yourself are you allowed to be creative and speek freely.
We attempt to educate everyone (other countries do not) and we value the individual and not culture. Unfortunately, there is no way for a public education system that is serving a large population to individualize and cater to each individual. And, frankly, we wouldn't want that. One thing education must do is get kids ready to go out into the real world and it will not cater to them.
Personally, I find that true creativity is born out of expertise. I had to learn a lot of engineering before I was, remotely, ready to get creative with it. I have no idea how people think you can teach creativity first. You can't. Creativity without core knowledge of what you're trying to be creative with is a prescription for disaster. It was an issue I dealt with every day as an automotive design engineer. The studio designers had no clue how to actually make a car yet they wanted to be creative in styling. I spent most of my time in the studio explaining why we can't do it that way. The design process could go four times faster if the stylists actually had a clue as to what it took to actually make the parts those cars are made of.
The models are there: Summerhill, Montessori, Waldorf . . .
You mean that knowing the tensile strength of steel might be crucial to the manner in which an automobile can be designed!!! Ahhh, you murderer of the creative spirit, with your Gradgrindian insistence that creative minds know the irreducible facts of physics! Dammit, if I want to build a car out of adobe bricks that goes a hundred miles an hour on square wheels, I WILL DO IT. </sarcasm>
LOL. This reminds me of why my daughter did not want to be a designer (she builds things for theaters). She says designers deal in fantasies and then she has to figure out how to make them in the real world.
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. It's our attitude about education. It's this idea that eduation needs to suit ME. That I count more than anything. Countries that successfully educated have populations that value education and students who consider it their job to learn. They are team players while we make education an individual sport. 
