Does school kill creativity?

[Nadimos]

Does school kill creativity?

 

no.

 

 

edit:

haha I wasn't going to allow myself to be dragged into this, but since when do schools not teach how to balance a checkbook? They did when I was in school and they still do in my local area. It's regularly a math project.

 

Then clearly some of the bankers and politicans need to go back to that school and ppl better come up with a way to control these books instead to sit infront the tv. Doh.

Edited May 31, 2012 by Nadimos

[marharth]

Does school kill creativity?

 

no.

 

 

edit:

haha I wasn't going to allow myself to be dragged into this, but since when do schools not teach how to balance a checkbook? They did when I was in school and they still do in my local area. It's regularly a math project.

During my years in public school in both North Carolina and California, neither has taught how to balance a checkbook. That was only a few years ago though, and pretty sure public schools have been changing quite a bit.

[myrmaad]

What is needed is for personal finance to become a mandatory life skill taught in all U.S. high schools, with an emphasis on taxes, investing, saving and spending. Currently, just seven states-Illinois, Florida, Kansas, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia-require such a course in their high schools. - Dr. Lewis Mandell

 

... and while these courses are offered at the schools in my area, they were not taught across the board, meaning, in my experience they were offered by a teacher who had an interest in teaching them, to students who were already excelling and interested in learning.

[HeyYou]

Does school kill creativity?

 

no.

 

 

edit:

haha I wasn't going to allow myself to be dragged into this, but since when do schools not teach how to balance a checkbook? They did when I was in school and they still do in my local area. It's regularly a math project.

 

The taught it when I was in school too, but, that has been a couple decades ago....... The class was offered when my teenager was a freshman, (5 years ago.) but, was cut here due to 'budget constraints'.... (and the teacher was let go as well.) Its not taught at all at any school system in the county here so far as I know.

[Beriallord]

Government regulation, lack of funding, and basic busy bodies are killing creativity in schools. What are some of the first programs that are cut when the budgets get tight? Is it sports programs?? Oh heck no. It's the arts...... Thank our federal government (US) for that.

 

Lack of funding? America spends more money per student on education than any other country in the world. The Japanese for example, spend less on education, but I doubt anyone is going to argue that they aren't far superior to American public schools. I think the difference is attributed to cultural and motivational issues more than funding. Trying harder, and caring more is the biggest difference. Funding a school doesn't change that. Even the Chinese who don't spend nearly as much on education are far ahead of American public schools in Math and Sciences. Same goes for the India. A child in poverty in India or China is going to be heavily motivated to do well, so they have best possible chance of moving up the socioeconomic ladder. Kids doing bad in America is due to bad parenting, and bad attitude, etc, lack of motivation. No amount of money is going to solve that problem,

 

Also many of the curriculums set vary heavily from State to State, or city to city. A public school in an area with a higher socioeconomic status is probably going to have a more challenging curriculum than one in an area of low socioeconomic status. I have noticed this because I went to public schools in California, Kentucky, Virginia and Texas. California was by far the worst of the bunch, but it was also the most funded. And I was very impressed with the vocational school systems setup in Kentucky. They had very good programs for Carpentry, Machining, Welding, Auto Mechanics, and even Farming. Local farmers would lend equipment to the schools, so high school students could learn to operate a Combine, a bailer, rake and tractor and other equipment. Also land was donated to the school to grow crops, tobacco, corn soy, etc. So students could get hands on training. And had solid freshmen through senior classes for each. You could basically get a vocational degree in each of those without even having to go to a votech college. And the vocational system was funded largely by private donations from contractors, businesses, and corporations in the state. Seeing how it was in their long term staffing interests to have people skilled in the fields that they needed.

 

They were teaching higher levels of Mathematics in Kentucky than they were in California at comparable grade levels, when I moved I had some catching up to do. Because it appeared they were an entire grade level ahead.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Beriallord

[Nadimos]

America spends more money per student on education than any other country in the world?

Dont you mean the military?

 

Here are some numbers from several countries vs the national output from 2010.

 

http://www.laenderdaten.de/bildung/bildungsausgaben.aspx

Edited June 5, 2012 by Nadimos

[Beriallord]

America spends more money per student on education than any other country in the world?

Dont you mean the military?

 

Here are some numbers from several countries vs the national output from 2010.

 

http://www.laenderdaten.de/bildung/bildungsausgaben.aspx

 

I'm not fluent in German?, so I can't make any sense of the content. And if you are going to make a comparison based on money spent compared to national output, I'd wager a couple other countries might spend more than the US does militarily.

 

Also on the flip side, for as bad as America's public school system is K through 12, our colleges are some of the best in the world. And a college education in America is very expensive. If you count the amount of money spend by people paying for college, I'm certain the % of money spent on education in America relative to its production goes way up.

Edited June 12, 2012 by Beriallord

[Keanumoreira]

America spends more money per student on education than any other country in the world?

Dont you mean the military?

 

Here are some numbers from several countries vs the national output from 2010.

 

http://www.laenderdaten.de/bildung/bildungsausgaben.aspx

 

I'm not fluent in German?, so I can't make any sense of the content. And if you are going to make a comparison based on money spent compared to national output, I'd wager a couple other countries might spend more than the US does militarily.

 

Also on the flip side, for as bad as America's public school system is K through 12, our colleges are some of the best in the world. And a college education in America is very expensive. If you count the amount of money spend by people paying for college, I'm certain the % of money spent on education in America relative to its production goes way up.

 

Yes, but what about this popular idea that America bases its most educated and qualified citizens on whether or not they are in possession of a college degree? Someone told me the other day that education not provided by the colleges is irrelevant to learn because its not the kind that will earn you a college degree and thus, a high-paying job. If that's true, then we have a serious problem in our educational system on top of everything else its being strained by. I agree that colleges like Harvard and Yale produce intellectually strong individuals (including famous ones, like Steve Hawking) but I have come to disagree with this notion that certain areas of education should be taken out of our curriculum simply because society favors the degree and not the quality of the education garnered from the professors. I understand that this may not adhere to your specific area of education, and that's okay, but I'll find it sad when one day, someone will tell me that they don't even know where the Middle East is, and yet, will see this knowledge as irrelevant, despite the fact that we're waging war over there for oil and other resources.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Keanumoreira

[Vagrant0]

What is needed is for personal finance to become a mandatory life skill taught in all U.S. high schools, with an emphasis on taxes, investing, saving and spending. Currently, just seven states-Illinois, Florida, Kansas, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia-require such a course in their high schools. - Dr. Lewis Mandell

 

... and while these courses are offered at the schools in my area, they were not taught across the board, meaning, in my experience they were offered by a teacher who had an interest in teaching them, to students who were already excelling and interested in learning.

For me, it was a mandatory class in economics in highschool. Really though, I don't think I learned very much there that isn't part of just normal math or common sense, and the latter is usually impossible to teach. The problem is really that politicians are far removed from the situation and are essentially throwing around money that isn't exactly theirs, although they get a direct benefit from how it is spent. They're stuck between being fiscally responsible with tax dollars, and making sure that those groups which contribute to their campaign or various other kickbacks have their interests protected. And that's an entirely different matter.

 

 

Regarding school killing creativity... I wouldn't say it kills it, but rather by the nature of school educating a person towards learning and adopting a set of prescribed ideals and concepts it both has the capability to technically prevent other ideals and concepts from forming, but it also has the ability to give people the tools and inspiration to build upon those ideals and concepts. There is no clear answer, and the closest one tends to be subjective based on how valid the person thinks those ideals and concepts are in relation to their own life. In a sense, without school or some sort of formalized training a person may dream up all sorts of crazy and inventive things, but without having access to a common language, or knowing how the rules of reality work, those crazy and inventive things usually cannot be communicated very well or simply won't work on any level. Creativity really doesn't matter when you don't have the ability to express it or make it work.

[eodx9000]

Did "schooling" kill creativity? No, the real problem is that people believe everything requires an "education", for that's what it comes down to - the idea that you can only gain knowledge by going to school.

 

You don't need to go to school to learn to draw or paint, although it may help. You don't need to go there to learn English, although it may help. You also don't need to go in order to learn mathematics, although it may help. Yet, people continue to propagate this myth because they don't know any better, they don't know how there are so many famous people that never had to go to school to learn.