I got frustrated with my daughter today because she was spending so much of our schooling time, being creative. She was enjoying drawing and coloring a detailed illustration instead of editing the sentences that described it.
And, while I didn’t realize it at the moment, I was essentially asking her to ignore the desire to artistically create so that she could embrace the formula of “writing a strong sentence” which I was so efficiently hammering into her brain- Capital letter first. Specific subject and strong verb. At least one adjective. Punctuation at the end.
And, while it is true that the girl needs to be able to write a strong sentence, I wonder if so often, too often, I err on the side of teaching the information tested instead of embracing the life skills needed when books are closed and jobs are begun.
But I don’t think balancing this tension between creativity and information is just a problem I face in educating my children at home. I think it’s a struggle all educators face, regardless of the size of classroom.
I’m afraid we all tend to shake our fingers at those who color outside of the lines.
End of the year tests are coming, after all, and there’s no time for that-- for creation and failure and mess. Do that in art class once a week,
maybe.
But, I wonder if our preoccupation with the knowledge-checklist causes us to miss so very much in the shaping of the very students before us.
Perhaps unintentionally, I wonder what Thomas Edison’s we discourage from inventing, what Monet’s we command to paint inside the lines.
“I believe we don’t grow into creativity. We grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out of it.” – sir ken robinson
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Related Posts: Think Different. Why Teach? . Thanks from Grade School Me.
How do you encourage creativity in your classroom? What are the practical challenges of fostering creativity in a public school classroom, especially?
Laura has a middle school education degree but currently teaches her kids at home in Thailand. She blogs at aLifeOverseas.com
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