Do Schools Really Stifle Creativity?
Orville and Wilbur Wright’s father was a bishop with responsibilities that required travel. He often brought home gifts and toys for his children. The family home was filled with artifacts of learning but the Wright brothers trace their interest in aviation back to playing with a rubber band-powered toy helicopter gifted by their father.
Flash forward to April 19, 2021. A tiny helicopter named Ingenuity has hitched a ride on the latest NASA Mars Perseverance expedition. It was a seven-month voyage covering 173 million miles. In contrast, the Wright brothers’ famous first flight at Kitty Hawk traveled 120 feet for about 12 seconds. While the Wright flight is recognized as the first manned flight on Earth, the Ingenuity became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. It lasted 39 seconds after rising to a height of 10 feet. Fittingly, NASA has honored these two historic flights by naming the location on Mars, Wright Brothers Field.
117 years separates the two monumental moments driven by the same natural pursuits of curiosity, creativity, and ingenuity. But, where do these skills begin, and what happens to them in school?
In describing her own toddler, Anya Kamenetz, NPR digital education reporter and author of The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed With Standardized Testing – But You Don’t Have To Be, explains that “early learning is as much about creative expression and social engagement as it is about parroting any memorized patterns, like letters or numbers.” Those of us with children nod our heads in agreement. And, as soon as they are able, here comes a never-ending torrent of questions that always seem to end with, “Why?”
But then, we start children on the formal education path. Whatever level of creativity, passion for learning, and innovative thinking a child has previously developed is, slowly but surely, expunged from their memory and ongoing learning experiences.
Do schools actually diminish the creative expression and innovative thinking of children? Let’ start with George Land’s longitudinal study on creativity that he designed for NASA to find innovative engineers and scientists.
A 2019 Gallup Research report on creativity in learning substantiates Land’s study. A significant finding is that creativity in learning produces positive critical outcomes for students, “which are further enhanced when teachers leverage the full potential of technology.” However, students don’t spend much time in classes doing creative activities. 52% of teachers say students often work on projects with real-world applications. Only 26% of students agree. They report spending much more time memorizing facts and definitions.
The discrepancy between teachers’ and students’ views of creative activities in the classroom is mirrored in a large survey of primary and secondary teachers in Europe. “While teachers claim to foster many skills that are connected to creativity, traditional teaching and assessment methods and resources are still predominant.” Despite the belief in the importance of practicing creativity, teachers’ opinions and classroom strategies are about as far apart as Earth is to Mars.
As the saying goes, “We teach the way we were taught.” A lack of emphasis on creativity in teacher training, the overwhelming amount of curriculum standards, and pressure to produce results on standardized tests leave little time or expertise to engage students in creative learning.
Creativity is not the only skill that diminishes in schools over time. Here is a look at what happens to enthusiasm, engagement, and asking questions as students progress through school.
Researchers use phrases like “fall off a cliff” and “drop like a stone” when describing what happens to curiosity, engagement, and creativity once children hit the classroom. Author and researcher on curiosity, Susan Engle, recounts a ninth-grade classroom observation: “A student raised her hand to ask if there were any places in the world where no one made art. The teacher stopped her mid-sentence with, ‘Zoe, no questions now, please; it’s time for learning.’” Yeah, I wouldn’t ask any more questions either.
Brandon Busteed, former Executive Director of Gallup Education, blames an “overzealous focus on standardized testing.” “The drop in student engagement for each year students are in school is our monumental, collective national failure.” As one teacher in the Gallup report put it, “I know specifically what will be looked at in the AP [Advanced Placement] test. I do it the way the College Board says even though I know other ways to teach it. If the teacher can’t express themselves, how can you make students?”
Kids crave more creativity, curiosity opportunities to drive their own learning. By the time, they hit middle school, many are bored or “systemized” into compliance. Parents want more critical thinking, real-world experiences, and less emphasis on testing. Teachers overwhelmingly want more opportunities for creativity. Researchers tell us that creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking are much needed but seldom seen.
A 2020 Linkedin survey reports the number one skill companies need most is creativity. Same for 2019. In their report on business skills, IBM’s latest research reveals that a shift is occurring in needed critical skills. Business leaders are favoring behavioral skills over technical and digital skills. In 2018, the top skills desired were soft skills.
If you feed this data into an algorithm that analyzes school structures, it would continuously spit out,
“DOES NOT COMPUTE…DOES NOT COMPUTE…”
until a meltdown ends the malfunction. There is a huge disconnect between what society sees as vital outcomes of schooling and what education actually delivers in K-16 institutions.
It’s not lost on me that NASA names their mechanical and digital wonders that traverse the universe Perseverance, Ingenuity, and Curiosity. It’s also not lost on me that our industrial factory school system started from the same era as the Wright brothers’ flight and remains the dominant model today. With students, parents, educators, and business leaders clamoring for the development of different skills, it brings us back to the same question toddlers ask over and over, “Why?”
Providing time and space for creativity, curiosity, and innovation in the classroom is not unreachable. One way is significantly de-valuing or eliminating high-stakes testing. That’s beyond an individual teacher’s pay grade but everyone can start with Genius Hour passion projects driven by student interest.
Here are a few links to get you started on fostering creativity in the classroom: