Creativity In America
I am writing today to discuss the slow depletion of creativity from the coming generations of young Americans. In a report made by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, a creativity test administered to millions of people showed a grave decline in their creativity scores as years progressed. The largest decline being in the demographic of children between kindergarten and sixth grade. Numbers don’t lie, and outlined in the publication there’s no doubt the ability to create for our nation’s youth has declined. Of course many things can contribute to such an obscure problem. However, I believe faults in our school system bear much of the blame for the students shortcomings. As a result, it is necessary for some preventative action to be in place to prevent an outbreak from becoming an epidemic. Before the problem can be effectively handled we must first understand the lack of creativity as well as its consequences. As mentioned before, the range of children most impacted by the loss of creativity are those between kindergarten and sixth grade. This is quite a
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With each passing year I am watching teachers ditch old lessons geared for creative development in exchange for advanced topics. For example kindergarteners no longer have coloring time but instead are practicing early math skills. Even my grandmother, a retired kindergarten teacher frequently comments on the advanced topics replacing old lessons. Frequently, the new topics throw out creative thinking for logical thinking like math and reading. Why schools are shifting to this new form of education is a whole other topic itself. Perhaps schools who implement the new structure see improvements in academics or ACT scores. If so there’s no doubt it would cause a diffusion effect of other schools following suit. Regardless it seems very necessary to monitor the effects of changing curriculum especially in young
With each passing year I am watching teachers ditch old lessons geared for creative development in exchange for advanced topics. For example kindergarteners no longer have coloring time but instead are practicing early math skills. Even my grandmother, a retired kindergarten teacher frequently comments on the advanced topics replacing old lessons. Frequently, the new topics throw out creative thinking for logical thinking like math and reading. Why schools are shifting to this new form of education is a whole other topic itself. Perhaps schools who implement the new structure see improvements in academics or ACT scores. If so there’s no doubt it would cause a diffusion effect of other schools following suit. Regardless it seems very necessary to monitor the effects of changing curriculum especially in young