Julie S.
H.English/ I-search
5/10/11
Cutting the Arts
I. What I Know
The first time I heard of schools cutting fine art classes, such as music, drawling, and creative writing, was when I was in about 4th grade and I was going to a school that had none of these art classes. It pretty much only had the absolutely necessary classes, like math, science, and English. At this school, not a single student could write an okay poem but they could memorize Pi to the 20th digit. Everyone was like little robots, who couldn’t think for themselves, we even had to wear uniforms. I believe that this school is the reason I am not as creative as I should be. We weren’t taught to express ourselves, but were taught to memorize and recite equations.
Once I entered high school I thought it was amazing how many fine arts classes they had. It would be a great experience for any student to take a number of these classes. There was pottery, creative writing, photography, culinary arts, and much more. Now I learn next year, half of those classes will be nonexistent at my school. I think it would be a very sad and horrid time if they cut the classes that make us different.
Now my I see my sister and brother’s school is cutting them all out, and they’re even going to the extent of merging some of the grades together in one class. They say this is all to save money for now, but will it benefit in the future?
II. What I want to find out
I have chosen this topic because I believe creativity is a necessity in not only children, but adults. It is a very interesting topic and I want to know how it will affect the future, when the adults will be the kids how have no creativity. I also want to learn more about where creativity is mainly developed in someone, whether it is school or home.
On the subject of the fine arts being taken out of school, I want to know how much money exactly the school would be saving. I would like to understand better why they would choose the arts over everything else. Creativity is one of the more crucial subjects and they are just ripping that opportunity away from us.
When the schools do something as drastic as this, they must think of the effects. So, I want to know what the effects could be of doing this, and how society would be. I also want to know what parents think about this and whether or not they are taking measures into their own hands, whether by putting their children into out of school classes, or by protesting this idea. Another idea that might be helpful would be for parents to encourage creativity; so what ways would be helpful in doing that?
III. The search
Article
The title of the article is called The Creativity Crisis and is written by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. The article was published in The Newsweek Magazine on July 10th 2010. It is about the studies on children that started 50 years ago and how American children, especially are losing their creativity.
The “creativity experiment” was lead by Professor E. Paul Torrance. It started in 1958 with 400 children and the professor handed them each a toy fire truck and asked how they would improve it. Creativity is production of something original and useful, and this is what the professor was looking for in the young children and he found it in most of them. There is never one right answer when it comes to creativity. Now, 50 years after these tests Torrance’s colleagues are tracking down all the kids who were involved in the experiment and recording everything they’ve created, accomplished, or done in their lives.
Torrance also came up with predictions on how the kids will be like as adults based on their creativity and most of his predictions came out to be true. Another professor reanalyzed Torrance’s works and he found that when it comes to lifetime creative accomplishments, children with creativity were more than three times stronger than children with high IQs.
Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary also analyzed the works of Torrence and he found that intelligence scores are going up 10 points each generation, but American creativity scores are declining, and they believe this is the result of an enriched environment. The professors say the age group this will be most seriously affected in the children’s future by the creativity decline will be Kindergarten through 6th graders with barely any or no creative skills.
Book
The book is called From Complexity to Creativity and it was published in 1996. This book talks about all sorts of things to do with the brain, but the main focus is on creativity. The chapter that I will be using is chapter 14and it’s on the dynamics of creativity.
Places, such as America, are all about science, logic, and reason, but do they realize none of the great accomplishments in those were actually achieved in a scientific, logical, or reasonable matter. They were through creative inspiration that drove those people to come up with these unheard of ideas.
The author describes that he believes you need inspiration to do something creative. He says everything happens involuntarily and that you can’t force creativity to come out and that it just “flows”. The author states that in order to be a highly creative person you need two things: 1.) Develop a habit of carrying out creativity, which I would say must start when that person is a young child, and 2.) be in one’s “own Universe”.
I think the author is trying to say that you need something to spark the flame to your creativity, whether it be a crush or the beauty of the landscape, also that you need to start young to develop creativity, and don’t stop, make a habit of it.
Interview
I did the interview with a teacher, who has taught at multiple schools around Arizona. Her name is Cathy Taylor and she is my aunt. She is 34 years old and is born and raised in Arizona. We were in my kitchen with my family there on May, 8, 2011.
Julie: What grades have you taught?
Cathy: Well, I taught almost all grades, and ever did substitution for a while, but I have taught 1st grade the most, and it’s what I’m currently teaching.
Julie: How long have you been teaching?
Cathy: for eight years.
Julie: Compared to the students in your first year of teaching, how would you say their creativity compares to the students you have now?
Cathy: I would say the level of creativity is going down and it’s because our school doesn’t even offer the school any art, in my class I try to add that type of stuff whenever I can, but sometimes it’s hard, and every once in a while a nice parent will bring supplies in.
Julie: Do you think the main problem is that schools are too worries about test scores?
Cathy: yes, and about their ratings. Almost every teacher I come across, that’s all they ever talk about, getting the highest test scores, and it’s because the higher the scores the more they get paid.
Julie: Why do you think the creativity levels are so low?
Cathy: because school don’t let the students have creativity. They are all about the test scores.
Julie: Do you think it’s important for children to have creativity?
Cathy: Yes. I think schools should teach the children the basics of it, but it should start at home, with the parents.
After the interview, we discussed some more on this topic. She brings up a lot of points that I would like to look more into in the future. I can tell her students are lucky to have her as their teacher.
IV. What I learned.
I really learned a lot while researching this topic and I really want to look more into this type of stuff, it’s really interesting. I think I learned a lot more than what I did before. I feel like going and have discussions about this with everyone, there’s really no yes or no to this topic, you can say no, creativity in children isn’t important, or you can say yes, it is, creativity is what really makes you intelligent.
Parents also need to know it’s not only the schools job to encourage creativity, and it starts at home. It’s probably not the best idea to throw you children in front of the TV and computer, or throw a DS or controller into their hands, but inspire them to think of things on their own, and be original. It’s extremely important and will never be a disadvantage to have creativity.
Works Cited
Ashley , Merryman. "The creativity Crisis." newsweek(2010): n. pag. Web. 07 May 2011. <http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html>.
unknown, . "from complexity to creativity." goertzl1997: n. pag. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://www.goertzel.org/books/complex/ch14.html>.
