Inventiveness

In the video, he talked about how teachers are preparing everyone to be college professors. I thought that was interesting because a small number of people actually become college professors. I think teachers are taking away our creativity. Many people undervalue the arts in favor of math and science. Not everyone wants to be a mathematician or a scientist, but I think most people believe that the only jobs worth having are the ones involving math and science. For example at my high school, the international baccalaureate program came into prominence after I graduated. “The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect…” IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization). This sounds like a good thing, but when you're in the IB program, you cannot be in band, orchestra or choir. In my experience, the kids that would want to be in the IB program would also want to be involved in music. The message from this is that music is not important and is a waste of time.

Some teachers do encourage creativity. I had a class in high school for three years called Autonomous Learners Program (ALP). It was a combined English and social studies class. During that class, we rarely had busy work; it was all about using critical thinking to master the material. A large portion of our grade was determined by projects, and creativity was a large portion of our projects grade. That was my favorite class, and I didn't realize it at the time, but that was the one class where creativity was encouraged and everything wasn't by the book. In the video he mentioned that was all start out creative, but as we become older we get educated out of creativity. I think this is true for the most part. In most classes, it's rare to do anything but worksheets.

I believe creativity is a necessary skill for the 21st century. With so many new problems and so much new technology, the same solutions can't possibly work for every situation, and to come up with new solutions involves creativity. Teachers should teach their curriculum with a focus on creativity, because if we don't practice being creative, we could lose that skill altogether.