Do Schools Kill Creativity? - Structural Functionalist I found that Sir Ken Robinson 's presentation on the lack of support given to promote creativity in public education can be interpreted in the structural functionalist perspective. I believe this because what Sir Robinson seems to describe is an imbalance in education where we value and teach mathematics and english far more than we do the arts. Sir Ken Robinson explains how the public education system is "educating people out of their creative capacities" and mistakes become stigmatized. He continues and points out that the same hierarchy of subjects exists around the world with mathematics and english at the top and the arts at the bottom. Through this system, Robinson concludes that …show more content…
Robinson explains how during industrialism society required an increase in mathematical and scientific studies and the education system responded. This is an example of an instance where the education system and society were in balance. However, during the Space Race which occurred during the late 1950s to 1970, the United States and the Soviet Union competed over several technological achievements, the most famous being the control over space. During this time, American legislation pushed a greater emphasis on mathematics and physical sciences through the National Defense Education Act of 1958 which increased funding for these goals. While Robinson agrees that maths and science are important, the imbalance today has grown larger due to budget cuts and the lack of funding to the arts. Secondly, Robinson makes a good point about the over-diagnosis of ADHD. In this presentation and another called "Changing Education Paradigms" he mentions ADHD and how it has been overused to treat children who may not need it. In this presentation, Robinson describes a woman who would have likely been diagnosed with ADHD if she had been a child today but instead became a world famous dancer, not because she couldn 't pay attention, but because she was a better learner and thinker when she was on her …show more content…
The textbook was not dry like other textbooks are, and while the quizzes were challenging, I believe they fully assessed my knowledge of the chapters. The Working Poor by David Shipler was an interesting book and was incredibly important to fully understanding poverty in America and how the "working poor" live their lives. The discussion boards required me to think more critically about the chapters which I think was important. However, my personal opinion was that an equivalent could have been reached by simply answering the prompts directly to the professor instead of a discussion board and require additional posts to comment on other students ' work. Although, I do understand that this allows other students to hear other perspectives and possibly give them a better understanding of sociology. Overall this course was enjoyable and beneficial to both my college experience and my experiences in
Mooney embarks on this trip, starting in LA to his first destination at Arizona, to go beyond what is normal. Starting from his own personal history at Penny Camp Elementary. As Mooney travels he meets extraordinary people labeled abnormal, whom he soon felt weren’t that abnormal at all and were only suffering labels invented by man. During these meetings with people, Mooney explains that many terms society uses today were invented around the 1950s. This is especially odd because it is used so prominently and it was not discovered too long ago. The idea behind diagnosing ADHD is lack of attention, hyperactivity and impulsiveness; these characteristics alone to base diagnosis on is vague and leaves room for many mistakes, which have been evidently made countless of times. Mooney in his explanation of these labels shows that characteristics deemed inappropriate in society leads to the belief of mental incapabilities, which can only give those diagnosing the belief that anyone with these symptoms is broken. What is eventually understood is that, alth...
Imagine a world without artists, poets, inventors, authors, or designers… Can’t do it? You don’t have to .All you have to do is look at the students being molded by the American public school system, a group of boring conforming unimaginative robots. The problem with the American school system, as argued by John Taylor Gatto in his article “Against School”, is that it’s designed to create students to conform and adapt, to determine their social roles. Schools don’t pay nearly as much attention in encouraging the students to think more critically or creative as they do in making sure they are labeled by some absurd “standardized test”. The school system needs to focus on creating a group of innovators, creative students who think outside the
Robinson, Ken. “How Schools Kill Creativity.” Online video clip. TED. Ted, Feb 2006. Web. 26 March 2014.
Creativity in was defined by National Advisory Committee for Creativity and Culture in Education (NACCC 1999) by 4 main characteristics. The first is the use of imagination thinking or behaviour concerned with original or unusual ideas or actions. Second is using imagination to pursue a purpose relating to using imagination for purpose and having resilience to keep reinventing this. Third is originality; this is not only in reference to historic originality of anything gone before, but It can be personal originality or peer originality. Forth is judging value; explained as evaluating an imaginative activities worth in relation to a task. Wilson (2009) notes the increase of creativities stature in education and pedagogy from beyond the foundation subjects and arts during the last century. Robinson (2013) argues that modern education is still based around conformity and does not foster children’s natural inquisitiveness or creativity. My view is that education has progressed from the Victorian didactic ways of teaching, heavily influenced by the behaviourist theorist Skinner (Moore & Quintrel 2000). We are now concerned with developing the whole child as appose to simply imparting knowledge, repeating and demanding a correct response. This notion of developing the whole child, concerned with social and emotional qualities as well as academia, was central to the highly influential Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda (DfES 2004). ECM’s outcomes and aims, with respect to children’s enjoyment and achievement, highlight the importance of personal and social development.
Ultimately this assignment was beneficial to my perspective on class issues. It exposed me to multitudes of informational sources ranging from mainstream to alternative. It was also interesting to see the ways in which issues are portrayed differently, and as I mentioned other the lack of blaming the system is extremely interesting. The various sources opened my eyes to the reality of media impact and control over our lives and opinions. It is difficult to see beyond the obvious appeal of corporations such as Wal-Mart, but this should be apparent to me after all these years of sociology. I think this assignment really helped me to think outside the box, and really analyze who has control; it isn’t me or you. That’s for sure.
The American system of education is considered to be one of the most progressive in the world. One of the surveys on attitudes toward teaching around the world found that the United States is unique in its strong emphasis on "good teaching." My experience at State College has helped me to understand better how this system works, and what methods and techniques American teachers use to motivate their students for creative and active learning. However, I can also see that this system doesn’t work perfectly in every classroom. Reading Ernest Boyer’s article “Creativity in the Classroom” helped me with my understanding of the main problem that nowadays exists with the American college education system. According to the author, the problem is that teachers and students don’t see each other as one team doing the same business; therefore, in most classrooms the process of learning becomes a boring procedure instead of being mind-blowing. Moreover, reading this article, I could analyze the reasons of this problem that the author identifies through my own experiences at State College.
In their article, “The Creativity Crisis”, authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explore the urgency of the downfall in the public’s “creativity quotient.” Bronson and Merryman emphasize the necessity for young children to be imaginative. Through an IBM poll, they verify that with the decrease of creativity in our society comes an array of consequences seen in the work field. The authors remind readers of another reason for the importance of creativity; they argue that creative ideas can solve national matters. Hence, Branson and Merryman believe that original ideas are key for a better world. Though I concede that creativity is a vital key to the solution of many national problems, I still insist that teaching creativity,
To get better education, thinking and learning power comes from our hearts and minds. As Ho says in the article “We Should Cherish Our Children Freedom to Think,” American schools provide opportunities to students and a path to achieve their creativity, which “people tend to dismiss or take for granted” (2007, p.113). Moreover, he also raised a question if American education system is so wretchedly lower in merit, “why is it that this is still the country of innovation” (Ho, P.113)? Kie Ho believes that creativity and freedom to think is the essential part in American education system. If students use critical thinking skill to develop creativity, they can better understand the material and evaluate their own behavior and characteristics. In many other countries, education inhibited the children’s freedom to think and that repressed the development of students’ activities.
When I first decided to take the Introduction to Sociology class I wasn’t quite sure what to expect or even what to think. I had never taken any classes on sociology so I was quite sure that this would be an adventure. Well, as things turned out it was an adventure, this class was fun and very insightful. This class taught me a lot about what the rest of the world is like and how the American culture is different from the cultures around the world. What america accepts as the norm is different than say what Germany accepts as the norm.
In Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk video, he had many major points that relate to the definition and importance of creativity. A major point how creativity is as important in education as literacy. According to Sir Ken Robinson, “we should treat it with the same status. He explains is that education is used to prepare use for the future, but the future is unpredictable.”.
I have learned a lot from being in this class and throughly enjoyed the learning experience. This analysis was the perfect way to show what I have learned from taking this course. Even though the class only once a week for not a large amount of time, there was still a lot of information that was gone over. Overall, the main thing that I gained from taking sociological theory is that even though there are many different theories, they all work together in one way or another to make society
According to Google, creativity is defined as “the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” In his TED Talk, which is one of “the most popular talks of all time”, Sir Ken Robinson discusses how public education systems degrade creativity as an essential component within the academic growth of all students. Robinson is a creativity expert and an author who writes books about creativity in school systems. His expertise in the field of school systems and creativity justifies his opinion on the subject. Robinson concentrates on the significance of creativity by creating a variety of strong arguments. His main contention is that “creativity now is as important in education as literacy” (Robinson).
By using the topic of public school systems disregarding creativity he can persuade the viewers to want to take action. In the middle of his speech, he points out how every education system in the entire world is based on a ranking of subjects. When Robinson talked about the rankings of classes he had two main topics that he made sure to talk about. One being, the ranking is based on the most useful subjects are at the top of the list. He brought up how children have driven away from certain activities that they enjoyed because were raised to believe that those businesses will not create a successful job in the future. For example, if a child were gifted at playing the guitar and liked it, he or she would be guided away from the activity because there is no promise to have a successful career as a musician. This point was followed up by talking about how the entire rankings are based on one's academic ability. The school knowledge has come to take over our view of what intelligence is because universities are designed with just one image in mind. He makes this clear when he says Because of this child who are gifted and talented are being turned away by multiple colleges because the only thing they excelled at in school, did not matter. This leads to the audience to believe in all of the aggravating points Sir Ken
In the video Robinson states, “I believe that we have a system of education that is modeled on the interest of industrialism and in the image of it”. Even though many things have changed since the 18th century, the current American educational system is still the same as it was back then. Robinson states that schools are still organized like factories. “ Schools are still pretty much organized on factory lines ringing bells, separate facilities, specialized into separate subjects. We still educate children by batches, you know, we put them through the system by age group.” All of this leads to limiting the students with their learning, by forcing them to work faster or slower than the pace they learn. Not all students work the same way as others do, some do better in groups while others work just as well alone. This all leads to many thinking that there are only two types of people, smart or non smart people. “They have twin pillars, economic and intellectual and my view is that this model has caused chaos”. The chaos Robinson is talking about is the ADHD “epidemic” that the U.S is facing because of how different the 20th century is from the 18th century. “Our children are living in the most intensive stimulating period in the history of the earth. They are being besieged with information and coerced for attention from every platform: computers, from iphones… And were penalizing them now for getting distracted. From what? Boring stuff.” The thing is that there is no progress with adapting the educational system to our way of life, the only thing changing is the amount of standardized test American students take and the medicines they are taking in order to focus in class. Robinson pointed out how “ADHD has risen in parallel with the growth of standardised testing” and the only thing that parents and doctors are doing is
Using creativity in the classroom will create strong students and help better them for the future. Now, students are just being taught to what is on the test. They do not learn how to be leaders, how to work in groups, people skills, or how to use their mind that is not just for memorizing the information. “The challenge now is to transform education systems into something better suited to the real needs of the 21st century. At the heart of this transformation there has to be a radically different view of human intelligence and of creativity” (Robinson K., 2011, p. 14). Using creativity and technology will allow the students to enjoy learning more. I noticed in my final project, that other students who weren’t education majors, saw this problem too. Many of them did not see creativity in a classroom, they felt that the school system was creating them into robots that taught them all how to think a certain way. Ken Robinson feels that, “we don’t grow into creativity; we grow out of it. Often we are educated out of it.” (2011, p. 49). Teachers should be teaching students how to be creative, and how to think on their own, so students will be able to go far in the future and succeed in any job they