Do schools kill creativity?

[GenesisNemesis]

Meh, creativity is overrated.

Surprisingly few practical applications.

So? What's this obsession with practicality some people seem to have? Also, no one is proposing that we only focus on creativity. It's practically (heh) harmless.

 

[dismal]

Meh, creativity is overrated.

Surprisingly few practical applications.

So? What's this obsession with practicality some people seem to have? Also, no one is proposing that we only focus on creativity. It's practically (heh) harmless.

A better question would be "what's this obsession with creativity".

It's like people are taught to march in lockstep in worship of it to avoid an original thought. Irony.

Sometimes creativity is highly useful. Sometimes it's not. School often deals with issues where it's not. We don't need people to learn creative answers to "2+2=" or creative spellings for "apple".

 

[GenesisNemesis]

So? What's this obsession with practicality some people seem to have? Also, no one is proposing that we only focus on creativity. It's practically (heh) harmless.

A better question would be "what's this obsession with creativity".

It's like people are taught to march in lockstep in worship of it to avoid an original thought. Irony.

Sometimes creativity is highly useful. Sometimes it's not. School often deals with issues where it's not. We don't need people to learn creative answers to "2+2=" or creative spellings for "apple".

Again I said no one's proposing we only cultivate creativity, so claiming it's an obsession with creativity is at best a stretch. What's the harm in having students develop their creativity? There isn't any.

 

[dismal]

A better question would be "what's this obsession with creativity".

It's like people are taught to march in lockstep in worship of it to avoid an original thought. Irony.

Sometimes creativity is highly useful. Sometimes it's not. School often deals with issues where it's not. We don't need people to learn creative answers to "2+2=" or creative spellings for "apple".

Again I said no one's proposing we only cultivate creativity, so claiming it's an obsession with creativity is at best a stretch. What's the harm in having students develop their creativity? There isn't any.

I have no problem with people being creative. However I think this issue has a limited relationship to schools, and should certainly not be placed ahead of some of the not particularly creative aspects of a basic education.

 

[beero1000]

Ugh. I really, really, really hate the notion that mathematics isn't a creative activity. It shows up everywhere, and is even relayed by people who should know better. It's as if people spend their school education figuring out the shade of paint you get when you mix color A with color B, and then say "I'm no good at painting, I'm creative."

Creativity is not random. There's a fundamental level of non-creative drudgework that must be completed to get a good enough understanding of any subject to be properly creative, no matter what topic we're discussing. One of the major problems in education is that the first years of education are filled almost entirely with the drudgework and none of the creative aspects.

 

[dismal]

Ugh. I really, really, really hate the notion that mathematics isn't a creative activity. It shows up everywhere, and is even relayed by people who should know better. It's as if people spend their school education figuring out the shade of paint you get when you mix color A with color B, and then say "I'm no good at painting, I'm creative."

Creativity is not random. There's a fundamental level of non-creative drudgework that must be completed to get a good enough understanding of any subject to be properly creative, no matter what topic we're discussing. One of the major problems in education is that the first years of education are filled almost entirely with the drudgework and none of the creative aspects.

Your job is to teach first graders to be more productively creative adults.

What specifically do you do?

How would you demonstrate you have succeeded?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

So? What's this obsession with practicality some people seem to have? Also, no one is proposing that we only focus on creativity. It's practically (heh) harmless.

A better question would be "what's this obsession with creativity".

No, it isn't

It's like people are taught to march in lockstep in worship of it to avoid an original thought. Irony.

Creativity is what gives rise to original thought.

Sometimes creativity is highly useful. Sometimes it's not. School often deals with issues where it's not. We don't need people to learn creative answers to "2+2=" or creative spellings for "apple".

So you think creativity is akin to chaos or just getting shit wrong for the hell of it? It's much better for school to turn out students who simply fill in the right bubbles on a scantron sheet and not question anything.

 

[Angry Floof]

Meh, creativity is overrated.

Surprisingly few practical applications.

So? What's this obsession with practicality some people seem to have? Also, no one is proposing that we only focus on creativity. It's practically (heh) harmless.

“Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.”
― Richard P. Feynman

Unfortunately, some will never get this. I hope their sex lives are better than this would imply.

 

[laughing dog]

A better question would be "what's this obsession with creativity".

It's like people are taught to march in lockstep in worship of it to avoid an original thought. Irony.

Sometimes creativity is highly useful. Sometimes it's not. School often deals with issues where it's not. We don't need people to learn creative answers to "2+2=" or creative spellings for "apple".

You seem to be confusing "creative" with "inappropriate" or "wrong".

 

[HaRaAYaH]

It starts early, schools killing creativity

[YOUTUBE]v=shTb6aq2mDY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[bleubird]

It's good for some people to be creative. Specifically, people who have *useful* ideas.
That is the original quote.
Now we have moved the goal posts from what should be to what people have a right to be.

But we needn't delude ourselves that creativity necessarily results in useful things.

Useful to whom?

Different things are useful to different people. At different times.

Different people have the capability to be creative in useful ways. Sometimes but not others.

What f@#king boring world that would be!IT MUST BE USEFUL AND MAKE A PROFIT!
Never look at art?Never listen to music?

 

[dismal]

It's good for some people to be creative. Specifically, people who have *useful* ideas.
That is the original quote.
Now we have moved the goal posts from what should be to what people have a right to be.

But we needn't delude ourselves that creativity necessarily results in useful things.

Useful to whom?

Different things are useful to different people. At different times.

Different people have the capability to be creative in useful ways. Sometimes but not others.

What f@#king boring world that would be!IT MUST BE USEFUL AND MAKE A PROFIT!
Never look at art?Never listen to music?

Never read someone's posts?

Never attribute arguments to them that aren't being argued?

 

[ksen]

It's weird that dismal is so against creativity when he works in an industry that gave us the "Double Irish" and the "Dutch Sandwich".

 

[dismal]

It's weird that dismal is so against creativity

Again, the reading thing.

 

[ksen]

 

[AthenaAwakened]

To be fair, Dismal is not against creativity, provided it is useful.

When asked what or who determines what is useful, he said, different things are useful to different people.

Now if different people get to decide for different acts of creativity. then any creativity can be determined to by someone to be useful, which makes the first sentence, and Dismal's point, meaningless.

 

[Angry Floof]

What depth of ignorance produces a person who thinks creativity has nothing to do with learning? As if creative arts are some kind of superfluous icing on a cake of important rules where imagination has no place. Amazing.

Dismal, do you realize just how creative you yourself have to be to keep defending rigid rules over honest expression? Your own creative capacity just happens to be hijacked into devising defenses for an entrenched view rather than in the free, questioning kind of thinking that makes our species so intelligent. Creativity that serves to just keep you stupid and rigid is not useful or practical for human beings.

If you don't understand your own humanness, how can we expect you to understand, or even notice, ours or our children's?

 

[Bronzeage]

Creativity cannot be overrated, however, talent often is.

 

[untermensche]

Education is mostly about conformity and following rules.

It is the death of creativity and the human spirit.

And when that human spirit has been extinguished sufficiently we will even find those who rail against it and long for nothing but absolute conformity.

 

[dismal]

What depth of ignorance produces a person who thinks creativity has nothing to do with learning? As if creative arts are some kind of superfluous icing on a cake of important rules where imagination has no place. Amazing.

Dismal, do you realize just how creative you yourself have to be to keep defending rigid rules over honest expression? Your own creative capacity just happens to be hijacked into devising defenses for an entrenched view rather than in the free, questioning kind of thinking that makes our species so intelligent. Creativity that serves to just keep you stupid and rigid is not useful or practical for human beings.

If you don't understand your own humanness, how can we expect you to understand, or even notice, ours or our children's?

I don't recall having said anything like that.