Creativity in School

Interviewing high school students about creativity in the classroom for this week's post turned out to be pretty funny. First, I got a sort of dumbfounded expression... a blank face. When I asked again, I saw the understanding that they were being asked for opinions begin to sink in... and then they realized they'd need to answer my open-ended question. The expression "deer in the headlights" comes to mind.

Then the answers started to come.

I should disclaim that the students I interviewed were my daughter (Mara), a senior in high school, her friend (Libby), a senior at another high school, and my son (Ethan) who is a freshman at yet another high school. These are kids who are quite comfortable with me and very free with their opinions, so their initial response surprised me a little. In retrospect, it probably shouldn't have surprised me, since it's pretty much the same response I would get when I asked my students for feedback in the classroom. They always seemed a little shocked that a teacher would ask for their opinions on something, and then take those opinions into consideration.

According to all three of the kids that I talked to, creativity in the classroom is almost nonexistent.

Mara talked about the fact that even the graduation and college prep requirements in the schools minimize the need to develop creativity. She pointed out that high school graduation requirements include only one year of foreign language or art, and that the college prep requirements aren't much better, with two years of foreign language and one year of a visual or performing art. Her argument was that even the setup of the educational system minimizes the opportunity for students to develop their creative side, and that the creative opportunities within core classes are nil. She went so far as to say that creativity in most classes is actively discouraged, as responses that deviate from the teacher's specific requirements are penalized even when they meet the learning objective.

At that point, Libby jumped into the conversation and elaborated on Mara's point about being penalized for being creative when creativity wasn't necessary. She discussed an example from an English class, where her teacher required everyone to follow the exact same format for writing and would penalize students who didn't follow it, even when they were excellent writers. She acknowledged that there is a need for students to understand the structure of writing and that there are certain components that need to be there all the time, but she said that she found it frustrating that she was restricted to a specific formula throughout the year. She was never given an opportunity to apply what she had learned, to create even within a structure, and she and others in the class found it frustrating.

Ethan listened to both girls, and agreed with them. He pointed out that at his school, there is no incentive to be creative, even if he's not penalized. As he put it, why should he put in the extra effort to include an interesting graphic or other element to a project when he won't get a better grade for it?

I found Ethan's perspective to be particularly interesting because he went to a junior high where the learning was primarily project-based and required a lot of creativity. When I asked Ethan which he preferred using biology/life science as an example, he said that he preferred the experience from junior high. He talked about a project he had done in junior high where he had to develop a classification system for anything he wanted (he used Minecraft); in high school, he's been asked to put together a presentation about the classification system. The junior high project was much more fun for him, and it required creativity and a deep understanding of the underlying principles of classification that ins't present in putting together a Powerpoint about the topic.

When asked what they would change about school to encourage creativity, particularly using digital media and technology, they took a few minutes to get warmed up. I had to provide a couple of examples from my own classroom to get them going. Once they understood what I was asking, they had some pretty good ideas.

• They said that they'd like to have opportunities for cross-curricular learning (they didn't use the phrase, but it's what they described), where they can apply information across multiple subjects and do something with it. 
• They shared that they'd like to have more choices available to them. They pointed out that they have access to the internet almost all the time, and can search for pretty much anything that interests them, yet they are often restricted to a single topic on any given assignment. Libby described a memorable experience from a math class: for the final, students were given a choice of five topics that had been covered in class and had to work with a group, choose a topic, and find a way to teach it to the class. It was particularly positive for her because math is a very difficult subject for her, and it gave her an opportunity to take a strength and work with it and apply it, rather than being forced to work with something of her teacher's choosing, whether or not she understood it.
• They asked for opportunities to use social media to work on projects. Mara pointed out that a group Tumblr account could be used to complete a project, even when the students weren't together. Libby was quick to jump in that it would need to be up to the students to decide how to work on it, though, because not all students have access. (Libby goes to a school in an area that is lower socioeconomically than Mara, and is more sensitive to the struggles of families who have lower incomes.) Both girls agreed, though, that they would like to have the freedom to work in groups, on cross-curricular projects, in whatever way worked best for the kids in the group.
• Ethan pointed out that video games open up all kinds of opportunities for creativity. He used Minecraft as an example and said that it could be used to help kids learn everything from classification systems (like he did in his project) to how to build structures, to resource management. His point was that it's fun and it doesn't feel like learning, but requires a lot of knowledge to do it right.

As a parent, I am sad that my kids and their friends are experiencing an education where creativity is not a part of their experience. As a former teacher (and now leader) in the district that these kids go to school in, I am disappointed in their overall experience (from a creativity perspective), and I see that there is a lot of work to be done to make some changes that will enhance creativity.