simonec's blog

        Creativity in education has been limited and undervalued, understood as a purely artistic phenomenon that is not useful in other realms. However, the idea of creative thinking in school is not divorced from the value-constructs in place – if money-making is the end goal, creativity helps. “A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future” (Bronson and Merryman; Creativity Crisis). So why is American creativity declining? The results of analyzing around 300,000 creativity scores of children and adults, a study done with Kyug Hee Kim, shows that after 1990 creativity scores have been consistently declining (Bronson and Merryman; CC).

       It is easy to ridicule America’s education system. At this point it is unquestionable that creativity is being stifled on a national level, and that institutions ought to be more cognizant about the diverse ways in which their students learn. My own ability to be critical of the education that I have is contingent upon having had one. Once the achievement gap is closed, I welcome any and all criticisms of our system’s nuances, how we handle ingenuity, or the way classroom discussions are held. The first step is getting everyone in schools and graduating with the proficiency to exist competitively with one another in the “real” world.