
High School Is Killing Creativity - rajat1996
Schools are killing creativity by forcing students to memorize factoids rather than teaching them practical problem solving and pattern-recognition skills, and inspiring them to pursue their intrinsic motivators. Thoughts?
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ScottWhigham
You ask for thoughts so here's mine: Anyone can make a controversial, opinion-
based statement. Anyone. There's nothing interesting about your particular
statement in that regard. It _could_ have been interesting if you'd taken the
time to explain your opinion. But you didn't, and thus all I read is a one
sentence opinion. Why should I take the time to offer my own explanation of my
opinion when you couldn't be bothered to do the same?

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aharonovich
I agree, but do not consider myself knowledgeable enough in the matter to
actually think about a solution. Instead I think a lot about hacking this for
myself (when I was in high school, back when we used to ride a t-rex to get to
school) and for kids that I meet, friends' children etc. The optimal strategy
that i've found is to challenge the child until the 7th grade with after
curriculum activities, and then at 7th grade to start avoiding school as much
as possible while still attending for the social benefits. this can be done by
participating in special programs that vary from school to school but common
examples are teaching the kid math after school that he may take the final
exams by 9th grade and starting a university degree in a high school /
university combined program. This way the student can avoid roughly 50% of
high school while still getting the social benefits of making friends and
getting used to being around people, yet get 50% of his time back so he can
invest it in real education.

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LarryMade2
Memorizing stuff is good for excersizing long and short term memory capacity,
which is a big bonus when you get into programming... though then again, I
built my memory skills more from developing my programming than much other
stuff... I'm sure if you talked to someone who has a degree in child
development and higher learning they could give you the ins and out that both
rote and process learning are valuable for cognitive development.

And sometimes all you need is a factoid to get by and not the process that
went into its production.

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notduncansmith
When all you have is the ability to construct solutions, but no knowledge of
solutions that came before you, you'll spend your life inventing wheels.

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JSeymourATL
> Schools are killing creativity...

Assuming this statement were true, unschooled populations would have
demonstrably higher rates of creativity and happiness indices. "Where
ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

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cJ0th
I don't think it is that bad. In high school there are things like creative
writing. University can be way worse. In some majors like business studies
original thinking gets punished systematically.

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axilmar
Absolutely true. Students shouldn't be forced to memorize facts, they should
be encouraged to memorize those facts are that are necessary for problem
solving and pattern recognition.

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lutusp
> Thoughts?

My thought is this is not a fast-breaking story.

Also, remember that high school students get exactly the education their
parents want and are paying for.

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bramgg
> high school students get exactly the education their parents want and are
> paying for.

Not true. Lots of parents don't have any other options but to put their kids
in their local public school.

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lutusp
> Lots of parents don't have any other options but to put their kids in their
> local public school.

That's certainly true, but think about what you're saying. When a Midwestern
state tries to outlaw the teaching of Evolution in public schools, which
letter-writing political constituency do you think is behind it? How about sex
education? How about the treatment of controversial topics like Marxism? All
these hot potatoes are vetted by the parents of the students.

I'm not saying parents have realistic alternatives to public school. I'm
saying they can whittle away a progressive curriculum, item by item, until you
see a clear ground truth in many places -- enforced mediocrity.

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tenken
you need to have a certain corpus of knowledge -- before you can begin to
innovate. We all must stand on the shoulders of giants.

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csmdev
This is already a known fact. Read about the education system in Finland to
see the solution in action.

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rajat1996
The reason I ask is because I wrote a book after my senior year of high school
called "What High School Didn't Teach Me: A Recent Graduate's Perspective on
How High School is Killing Creativity." You can get a copy here:
[http://amzn.to/1B98oi8](http://amzn.to/1B98oi8)

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garysvpa1
I agree, we memorize too much things that cannot be used in real life.

