Kayla Kenny

ENG111

Marisa Enos

4 March 2018

The War on Creativity

It is assumed, here in America, that when a child is sent to school, they are being nurtured

and taught to use their imagination to learn. Sadly, the focus on learning through play has slowly

diminished in the education system. According to California State University Northridge,

creativity is the tendency to generate or recognize ideas or possibilities that may be useful in

solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. It is

common for children to learn how to think and feel about things by what they are taught in

school. Society has created a notion that creativity and the arts take away from a person’s

potential, therefore reducing creativity in schools. The focus is put on core subjects such as math,

english, science, and history rather than foreign languages and art classes. This is detrimental in

the American educational system. People are built physiologically and psychologically different

from one another; some lean toward having a colorful imagination, while others struggle with

creativity. When this belief is not adopted, students are set on an assembly line to ride along until

they get their diploma. In this way, children are taught to go along with what the educator tells

them to do, and in return graduate without issue. The problem with this method, is that it

oppresses any bit of divergent thinking that child has left. In divergent thinking, many different

solutions to one problem can be found; this takes the use of imagination though, and as we see in

today’s education system in America, creativity is besieged.

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Without creativity, there is no individualism in society. Creativity gives people the tools

to solve problems on their own. When these students become adults and enter the workforce,

their creativity and ability to innovate and problem solve makes them come out above the others.

The shortage of imagination is what many common careers lack. Without creativity being able to

be expressed in each person’s work, there is no passion and so it creates a feeling of not having

accomplished much. Creativity is also known by psychologists to relieve stress and anxiety; this

is why there are various creative therapy routes such as art and music therapy. It even has

positive effects on heart health (Chopra, Sehgal). These are just a few reasons why creativity is

so important to keep in the education system. To teach children to think creatively to solve

problems makes room for innovations and can significantly improve their quality of life and

health.

America is known as the “salad bowl”; that is, a country where many cultures and their

unique ideas are accepted, and unity is more important than differences. At least that’s what it’s

supposed to be like. Creativity is viewed uniquely in every culture, so everybody’s imagination

tends to create something unique. In a text written by bell hooks, an author, professor, and

cultural critic, she points out the problem that faces African American students, and the way their

individual creativity is ignored in academia. In “Language: Teaching New Worlds/New Words”

hooks explains the way the black vernacular in the English language was created. When Africans

were brought over to America as slaves, their own language was taken from them. hooks gives

us some insight on this issue, “Needing the oppressor’s language to speak with one another they

nevertheless also reinvented, remade that language so that it would speak beyond the boundaries

of conquest and domination. In the mouths of black Africans in the so-called “New World,”

English was altered, transformed, and became a different speech” (hooks 57). They used
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divergent thinking to find this path to some form of dignity in their lives. This took a lot of

thought on their part and a lot of creative expression has come with this culture. After all of this,

the American educational system does not recognize or even teach students about the history

behind the black vernacular. As hooks points out in this text, it is difficult for the black

vernacular to be integrated into academic writings (hooks 58), as it is often misunderstood by a

primarily white audience. American society claims to be open-minded and accepting of all

cultures, but because imagination and art have been slowly pushed out of educational priorities,

we only have the capacity for convergent thinking. Anything that is not understood, is

discounted. We are taught that there is only one way to write, one way to speak, only one way

that is correct. In a sense, a child’s imagination being taken away at such a young age is

somewhat similar to what hooks’ ancestors went through when their own language was taken

away and they weren’t allowed to think or speak for themselves.

In our narrow-minded education system, oppression is not just an issue of race or

language; socioeconomic status also plays a role in the American educational experience. Paulo

Freire was an educator and author who spent most of his time working to influence the

educational community to change the way teachers and learners interact. Freire is popular for his

book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In an excerpt titled “The “Banking” Concept of Education”,

he explains this term more thoroughly. Many times in education, there is a curriculum that is

followed and not strayed from. It is an extremely impersonal experience for both parties

involved. There is no respect, no creativity, and no dialogue involved, just the teacher making

their “knowledge deposit” to the student. In this way, everything is black and white; there is no

gray area. Again, this teaches convergent thinking rather than using dialogue to take in multiple

ideas and realize that there is more than one way to look at an issue.
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The current education system is outdated in its methods and children are being given

medications that basically sedate them to force them to be quiet and listen while the teacher

deposits the information. Children would learn much better being able to use their imagination to

complete different tasks. Sir Ken Robinson approaches this problem in a way that could be

considered controversial. Like Freire and hooks, Robinson focuses on the flaws in the

educational system as well as changing the way education is approached. While hooks focuses

on changes in cultural acceptance, Freire pushes for a “problem posing” education (Freire 6).

Robinson goes into detail about the way children are being anesthetized and numbed rather than

being encouraged to have fun with what they’re learning. In his video, “Changing Education

Paradigms”, Robinson points out the over-stimulating world around these children, which makes

them think school subjects are boring and have issues paying attention. This causes a chain

reaction of being diagnosed with ADHD and put on medication that numbs them rather than

nurturing their creativity and showing them the fun side of education. “The arts especially

address the idea of an aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is when your senses are

operating at their peak; when you’re present in the current moment, when you’re fully alive”

(Robinson). This is the way children should be taught; the conditions in which you learn the best.

Another great thing that Robinson brings to his audience’s attention, is that children are divided

into groups by the year they were born rather than what discipline they are passionate about,

which they should be focusing on more. This would foster creative thinking.

Much like Robinson’s view on anesthetizing children for the sake of learning, Paulo

Freire addresses the same problem. In a depository education system, creative power is inhibited

and discouraged in the classroom. Freire’s problem-posing education has a “constant unveiling

of reality”, stating that it “strives for the emergence of consciousness” (Freire 8). His problem-
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posing idea is, in fact, the exact thought that Robinson puts out in his Changing Educational

Paradigms video. This system is based around creativity and the development of critical

divergent thinking (Freire 10). Another similarity in these two views on education, is that Freire

tells us in his excerpt, that those who experience the banking concept of education are

“necrophilic” or dead, in a sense because they cannot be liberated and live freely in this way

(Freire 5). What Robinson speaks about in his video, is liberation of our children as well as adult

students. Authentic liberation, according to Freire, is the process of humanization (Freire 6).

In America, there is an issue of thinking other cultures’ way of writing or expressing

themselves should be discounted because it isn’t the same the majority of the population’s. If

creativity was nurtured instead of killed, these people could learn a thing or two from these

people’s languages and ways of life. There is rich history behind the way people are taught to

express themselves. In order to foster the growth of our people, and achieve real happiness and

liberation, America could benefit greatly from Paulo Freire’s model of problem-posing

education. It would do away with many issues we see in the world. Divergent thinking would

have a place in society. It could be understood that it is alright to have different viewpoints on

politics and that each job in society has a function, each one being as important as the next.

Children deserve the best educational experience they can receive.

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Works Cited
Deepak Chopra and Kabir Sehgal. Science Shows how Creativity Can Reduce Stress. 17 September 2017.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300347. 24 April 2018.

Freire, Paulo. The "Banking" Concept of Education. 1970.

http://www.umsl.edu/~alexanderjm/The%20Banking%20Concept%20of%20Education.pdf.
2018.

hooks, bell. "Language: Teaching New Worlds/New Words." Various. Exploring Connections: Learning in
the 21st Century. New York: Pearson Education, 2016. 55-60.

Northridge, University of California. What is creativity? n.d.

https://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/creativity/define.htm. 24 April 2018.

Robinson, Sir Ken. Changing Education Paradigms. 2010.

<https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms/details>.