

Education Killed The Creativity [In Me] - AdilD
http://www.creativitykilledtherecession.com/?p=332

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dazzawazza
I'm currently struggling with a daughter who is academic and artistic but
hates school because creative subjects are shoved out of the schedule to
meaningless exams, tests and repetitive class work. If she gets creative
within a maths lesson she is marked down for not using the prescribed method!

She's only eleven and she already thinks that school is a waste of time
despite achieving great results.

There is a lot wrong with the education system in the UK.

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dschobel
Do you think it's reasonable or fair to expect the public school system to be
the ones to develop an extraordinary child?

How many resources should they apply to the top 2% of children?

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apsec112
Yes. If they don't, who should? The parents? Many parents are completely
useless (or worse); should we just write off their children?

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dschobel
The point is that I'd be content if government served the general case of
population well. Super-bright kids are a special case there will be less harm
to society should they be under-developed.

I know that's horribly utilitarian of me but I'm just being pragmatic.

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jzachary
Schools receive their incentives for (1) high standardized test scores, and
(2) promotion/graduation rates. There are no incentives for producing
creative, literate, and critically thinking people. Until that changes,
schools will continue to break our kid's minds and corrupt their way in the
world.

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tyohn
"Every school Iʼve visited was participating in the systematic suppression of
creative genius" - Gordon MacKenzie

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timr
How many schools did he visit?

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Alex3917
"creativity should be as important to education as literacy"

We seem to have found the problem.

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dschobel
As far as I'm concerned the schools are just putting all their eggs in the
basket of kids who can do well in the system vs the abstractly intelligent
ones who do well when they are so inspired/inclined.

For all the gifted and unique snow-flakes out there, the sooner they learn to
cope with a system (and a world) which doesn't cater to their extraordinary
talents, the better off they'll be.

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zandorg
I dropped out of school at 16 (in the UK), and I did a deal with the school
whereby I'd take just 5 exams (maths, english, history, double science). I got
C's in them, not enough to get into a good college.

I tried a computer course, failed after year 1, and took Media Studies for 2
years and passed.

A few years passed, and then I completed my first ever computer course (eg,
having never passed any computer course) which was a 3-year degree.

It is possible to do higher learning further into adulthood, and easier!

[Edit] What has this to do with creativity? Well, not a lot. But I've written
stories all my life. I also think excessive use of alcohol kills creativity,
and these days, a degree is half about getting drunk and socialising.

My only advice is: Keep writing, even if it means missing out socially. Also
try and keep things interesting. I signed up to help a computing legend with
his software before my degree, and that was no end of fun. I was volunteering
at an ACM conference when I was barely into my 2nd year of University, thanks
to this work. He also guest lectured at my University, which was really
strange.

In short - find a mentor, even if it doesn't pay.

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johnnybgoode
I think this is inevitable when governments have anything to do with schools.
Even though we're seeing a lot of these "education today sucks!" articles, I
realize very few of the authors (and very few people here at HN) would agree.

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embeddedradical
Great Ted Talk on education & creativity:
[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html)

