Creativity and Curiosity: My thoughts Special Post #12A

Do schools destroy curiosity and creativity? If yes, why?

I feel like schools do destroy curiosity and creativity. I have been in many schools in Alabama and one in Wisconsin though I do not remember my time there. I can not assume that all schools are like the ones that I went to but given the question I am going to answer from what I have experienced. In my first elementary school it was a private school and we did so many activities. We were always outside and creating things. My school was from kindergarten through to twelfth grade. As a whole we did many activities together. I remember one week to signify unity we each created a foot print and taped them around the school. Our school was a big oval. Then one day we stood standing hand to hand in a complete oval. We created flower pots and did art every day. Then I transferred to a public school.  I remember when one of the few times we actually did free art one of my classmates drew his family as he saw it. He got in trouble by the teacher. He was told that that was not right and everything he drew was wrong. It crushed him. In middle school my science teacher allowed creativity and then the CRTs happened. Creativity and curiosity was squashed. All the science experiments that she had planned got packed up in a closet and forgotten. In high school we had nothing but again one teacher shined through it all and got an approved duel class: Newspaper and creative writing. It was the hardest and best class I ever had. All of us struggled. We were allowed to be creative and curious. We had to have original thoughts and ideas. We had to write a children's book. She also included technology. I don't recall the program but she taught two others school in Alabama while using a skype type tool. I wan in band. You would think we would be allowed to be creative. Nope. Any ideas we had would be shot down. We had to play only what he gave us. Then I transferred. I joined jazz band and my director was amazing. He taught us to improv. This was a hard thing for me. To just create music from my very being. It taught me so much. I do not understand how these amazing teachers allowed us to be free and 90%  of the other teachers tore us down. I cannot answer why. I feel like this is a choice the teachers make on there own. Maybe somewhere down the line something they created was told that is not good enough and damaged them as much it damaged me. Now that I am about to be teacher I have to learn how to be creative all on my own again. I have to let my inner child free. I also feel like maybe the people that are above us just do not understand the importance of creativity and curiosity. I do not know when or where it started but it has created a disastrous chain. Where everybody suffers.

Can curriculum be developed that increases creativity and curiosity?

I feel like it can. Depending on the principal I get I plan on doing a lot of things that allow creativity. I plan on  including technology where they have to do things from scratch. Most of all I plan on doing tons of arts. I want them to be able to draw what the feel as well as find words to describe it. I plan on doing projects instead of tests that have them hit on all of blooms taxonomy. These projects will have them be creative. I am sure though that many of them will probably just look up ideas online. As of right now I don't know how to approach that. I plan on reading as many times as I can to students. These books I plan on reading I will be able to ask questions to get them to predict what might happen next. I feel like this will get them to be curious about what happens. I think curiosity is the hardest one to develop. Children are naturally curious when they are babies and it depends on their caregiver if that has been taken away or nurtured. I really need to discover ways to make them curious. I feel like if we do science experiments they should naturally be curious about the outcomes.

Can teachers actions increase curiosity or creativity?

Yes. Those few teachers I mentioned gave us freedom to discover and be creative. They forced us to be unique. It worked. They gave us something simple and made us add on to it. One teacher every day gave us a quote and she would ask us what does it mean to us. It made us look up words we didn't know and it made us reach into ourselves and discover parts of us we didn't know were there. She would give us a topic and make us branch out on that. I feel like if the teacher just hands you everything you are supposed to know to pass the test your not going to remember it and your not learning anything. If a teacher just asks why is the sky blue without first explaining it they will get some pretty far fetched answers depending on the age. Ask a simple question that they need to know to pass the test and find out what they already think. Then just say something simple as well tell me why. They then have to find it on their own and they become curious.

What would help you become more curious and creative. What role do the teachers or schools have in that process?

I honestly don't see anything that school or teachers can do at this point to make me more curious. I am already a very curious person. I always want to know why. Why do you feel this way? Why did you get that answer? Why did you draw that that way? I don't see how that can grown anymore. On the creative side where I am entering at in school it forces me to be creative. I have to create so many things on my own now. I have to be unique and I have to be creative.