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The importance of teaching art in schools
The importance of teaching art in schools
The importance of teaching art in schools
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In the article “Teaching to the Test Gets an ‘F’” by Steven Slon, Slon, discusses the issue of creativity in schools and how student creativity and futures are in jeopardy. Slon talks about how he, himself, has witnessed the destruction of creativity firsthand with his own son. Slon also brings up a conversation he had with Sir Ken Robinson about the current status of American education such as needs, wants, and expectations of the adult world and how they have changed from a routine world to a more complicated and complex place. The article brings up the issue of standardized testing, which has only brought harm to the education of the nations youth and has put tremendous amounts of pressure on school districts. The hard working efforts of the government, school districts, and teachers to stimulate a well educated nation has only created another routine outdated education system, and a loss of all passion for school when a more engaed and creative curriculum is needed for the youth of the nation.
When we imagine a six year old we think of a small child with an extensively creative and imaginative mind were we would normally expect a first grader to experience fun and unique ways to learn new material such as penmanship, math, and grammar skills. Slon when his son was in the first grade however, had experienced a darker side of the education system, which has become an increasingly common situation. The first grade teacher was using very routine teaching tactics and the students did the same practices everyday in the teachers attempt to liberate creativity from the children’s minds to prepare them for a more adult like world. Robinson explains that such routine practices “…made economic sense to teach people to do routi...
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...re of a focus then the needs of the students would be easily met and there would be no need for a test to see if education is successful. The best places in the world for education, such as Finland for example, don’t use a standardized test and invest highly into teachers and provide them the best resources for education (49). The education system can be fixed to provide the best teachers to create the best students for the increasingly complex world were the more intellectual people become the most successful. Though politicians, teachers, and school districts have created a very sluggish education system. It all can be fixed though providing teachers the necessary tools and resources to create a better education environment because if we teach teachers how to teach with a creative approach, we shouldn’t have to worry about the after of the future generation.
Teachers who lack passion and desire to teach what they are given can translate and manifest its way to students as they also lose aspirations to come to school and learn only what will be on exams they are supposed to take to show that they are “learning.” Students come to school to learn things they did not know prior and with the acquisition of knowledge it can many a times create a drive for students to expand upon a particular subject, which can ultimately determine their careers and goals, but this whole process is shutdown with standardized tests, as many topics and subjects are limited to a few basic ones that put out the fire students are expected to have.
The United States of America has placed low on the educational ladder throughout the years. The cause of such a low ranking is due to such heavy emphasis on standardized testing and not individual student achievement. Although the United States uses standardized testing as a crutch, it is not an effective measure of a student’s ability, a teacher’s competency, or a school’s proficiency.
Creativity is something that isn’t taught but learned through self-reflection. Creativity requires one to be able to express their thoughts through words or other various forms of expression. Creativity allows students to come up with practical solutions to everyday problems when applying them to real life situations. This teaches students that there may be several ways to solve a problem, but no solution is better than the other. “People who are creatively successful go beyond merely performing a job, becoming sources of new ideas, discoveries, and inventions” (Zagursky). Students that are more creative thinkers; instead of, standardized test takers may find it difficult to advance in class. According to Kim Zagursky, the Torrance test is the most widely used creativity test in the world and is the best predictor of creative achievement. The Torrance test, named for creator E. Paul Torrance, was developed in the late 1950s as a potential tool to individualize student instruction (Zagursky). Unfortunately, as time past creativity is becoming less among our students. There is a growing concern for the ability to form their own opinions about ideas they have read. The questions in the Sternberg’s Kaleidoscope policy was designed to measure creativity, ana¬lytical, practical, and wisdom-based skills and attitudes (DiMaria 55). Sternberg’s policy is currently being used at Oklahoma State
Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including ones capacity for logic, abstract thought, creativity, and problem solving. Standardized tests play a major role in education systems today. Although these tests do exemplify a student’s ability to read and write English, this test promotes “teaching to a test.” I have first handedly experienced this in my own life. Standardized tests undermine critical thinking and innovation and are not the best example of intelligence.
Since the release of the report by Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in December of 2010 many in the government and community are searching for ways to reform the American education system to give American students the greatest opportunity to succeed. According to the report, American students are not testing as high as other nations in the world (Duncan, 2010). There are many contributing elements that have brought America to her knees in the education system, however, the obsession with standardized testing is found to be one of the most influential downfalls.
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.
Albert Einstein once said “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that is it stupid.” Sir Ken Robinson stated that schools are destroying children 's creativity with their curriculum, there are many facts that support this idea. Students are required to think a specific way, prepare the way teachers want them to be prepared. Students also have their own opinion, because they are not afraid to be wrong, and need a way to move forward.
Let me point out a fact that people know but fear to admit: America’s education system
Overall it is evident that standardized testing has affected the education in the United States negatively. The main flaw is that policymakers made standardized testing the center of our education system, which intern led to vast changes in curriculum where educators were forced to teach to test rather than teaching materials that fosters creativity, and enhances knowledge. Howard Gardner, famous for his work on multiple intelligences, stated he was unconcerned that American children were ranked last among the major industrial nations in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. He reported that tests measure exposure to facts and skills not whether or not kids can think (Ritter 5).
In this notable Ted Talk video "Do schools kill creativity?", Sir Ken Robinson discusses how public education systems demolish creativity because they believe it is essential to the academic growth and success of students. Robinson created a broad arrange of arguments to persuade the viewers to take action on this highly ignored issue, and he primarily focuses on how important creativity is. There are classes within schools that help utilize creativity, but they are not taken seriously by adults in society. Therefore, the value of creative knowledge decreases. Robinson uses an unusual combination of pathos and ethos to make an enjoyable dispute for implementing an education system that nurtures rather than eats away at creativity.
Standardized testing is a major part of the education in the public schools and in our society today. It is used to determine student achievement, growth, and progress. However, is a strong standardized testing program the best way to improve education? This question has been a controversial argument that existed among educators for decades. No Child Left Behind, some educators and politician believe that a strong standardized testing program is the best way to improve education because it serves as a guidance to help them in determining what and when to teach students. It keeps teachers and the schools accountable to give an accurate comparison between states and subgroups. However, other educators believe that standardized testing is not
Standardized testing has become something of a norm under the No Child Left Behind Act. It has left the student and teacher responsible in having high test scores and has forced teachers to teach directly by the curriculum. What standardized testing does do is help develop memory, but at the cost of creativity (Emanuel 9-10). This is the problem behind standardized testing is that it has become linear and obsolete (Emanuel 9-10). It has been noticed by many for example Sir Ken Robinson said,” Testing in principal is a logical way of measuring student knowledge”, but he continues by saying that, “In practice it creates a very dry learning environment”. This shows that the No Child Left Behind Act and standardized testing is not working, but why and how can it be fixed.
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).
...the pressure of keeping up with other students. Here, they can work at their own pace and figure out a solution that best works for them to understand or solve a problem. One last idea school reform should address in creating an equality of opportunity in public schools would be to set standards and spend more time in the classroom on these important tasks. These standards are put into place to help evaluate one’s progress. It’s important to have some standards in place, but they need to be feasible. To make such standards feasible, the teacher will be able to tailor it so that the standard can be met by the student. Spending a decent amount of time to get students to reach these standards is imperative. Without a sufficient amount of time, students may not be able to grasp and fully understand what is being taught to them resulting in standards not being met.
students to learn and teachers to teach. At first glance, it may seem problematic, but research has