We are actually making it worse. The American education system, that is. Recent measures to improve the system have successfully accomplished the exact opposite of that goal, failing to note the existing advantages to the system and instead trying to improve areas that perhaps are better left weak.
Not only is the education system itself losing its encouragement of creativity, and perhaps even beginning to reject it, but legislation is hurting the cause. No Child Left Behind forces teachers and schools to focus on standardized testing rather than creative thinking, a problem worsened by the increased emphasis on AP testing in high school and for college admissions. Fortunately, College Board has made strides in revamping the tests so as to stress creative thinking and not straight memorization. But even these changes are not enough.Another issue is the rash reaction many make to rankings such as these, in which America does not rank at the top for educational testing. But these tests are misleading, emphasizing small differences as falsely large. The reaction to the rankings, though, is usually an increased focus on test prep, rather than creativity fostering. But this fails to take account of the facts. Take Finland, a country that makes it a priority to avoid teaching to the test, and instead focuses on problem solving, yet ranking at the top of most educational testing metrics. More test focus is not what America needs. Less is truly more.
Furthermore, we often don't ask the right question in fixing the education system. The question isn't how can we appear more competitive. It is how can we actually be more competitive! One answer is to provide more vocational school, such as the German education system, allowing for a better prepared labor market. We should also target the economic niche America is in, with service oriented education, like financial assistance. This need not mean providing financial education, but rather providing problem solving and creativity skills necessary for global service jobs. These solutions may not show up in test scores, but they get at the real goal.
In fact, it is this last point of most concern. For that's why education is such an underdog. The politicians we need to reform the system find it easier to point to improve testing scores in a campaign than the less metric-oriented creativity and problem solving education needed. And as we continue towards the path of test skills, it becomes more difficult to make the changes necessary. But perhaps we'll solve the problem. Get creative. And fix the system.
I found your point about the American education system losing its encouragement of creativity really interesting. I recently watched a Ted talk video about that and it was interesting to think about it in terms of my own education. While some say that music and sports benefit a student and their learning process, many also tell students that their studies in the "core" subjects should come first. We are taught to spend a great amount of our time in books learning about numbers and facts. Exams typically test our ability to memorize rather than our creativity. Sadly, fine arts are usually the first thing cut from schools. I wonder what it would be like if students had required classes all about expressing their creativity? What if these were held at the same standard as our other subjects?
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point. Perhaps if we integrated fine arts more uniformly into other areas of schooling-rather than creating identical boring power points for presentations, teachers could encourage creative visuals that would be graded on according to creativity. This should extend across the board. In math class, students could spend a few days discussing topics of their choosing, applying what they learned in a creative manner. I think such integration would serve to provide the creative education while not forgoing the basic skills that still need attention.
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