Lindsey Claire Galt
Dr. Lee March
American Government
October 3, 2012

Do Schools Kill Creativity? If you search almost anywhere on the internet about creativity and public schools you will run into a video by a man named Sir Ken Robinson. He emphasizes that schools kill creativity in every way. On the other hand, President Barack Obama disagrees whole heartedly. Both of these men agree that creativity is important to children and schools but they disagree on whether or not creativity is being implemented in schools. Robinson stated in his lectured at TED 2006, “I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it” (Ken Robinson. TED2006). He goes to say that
Dara Adib believes that if schools harm socialization they will harm “creativity and reasoning”. Adib thinks that “school instills fear, overwhelming students with the possibility of getting a bad grade. Unnecessary control, brainwashing, and discouragement harm the possibility of independent thought by teaching a mindset of conformity, measured through grades and tests” (Adib). Adib states that the problem with education at this time is that “concepts are introduced, covered very quickly, and then left behind because it’s time to move on to another concept”. This causes students to not be able to retain large amounts of information because new things are constantly being added to the piles of information they must keep track of. The reason that so many people that become billionaires are drop outs it because they were not able to conform and had to let their creativity blossom. Schools teach students how to conform and be like everyone else. “After children have attended school for a while, they become more cautious and less innovative . . . teachers, peers, and the educational system as a whole all diminish children’s urge to express their creative possibilities” (Dacey & Lennon).
Some of the ways that it is believed that schools suppress creativity to the point of extinction are surveillance, evaluation, rewards, competition, over control, restricting choice, and most of all pressure. Teachers must constantly hover over