Standardized Testing: The Killer of Creativity
During my junior year, I had a teacher who gave my whole class complete freedom to create anything we wanted for a project, as long as it related back to the topic we were covering. You could almost feel the panic rise in every student in the classroom. Our whole lives, we have been conditioned to take notes off of a power point and then pass a standardized test based on that material. Not much creativity required on the students part, and frankly, not much creativity on the teacher's part either. While I sound very against the idea of standardized testing and lack of creativity, I will say that I along with almost every other student has been conditioned in this way for so long that the idea of pushing ourselves to do anything else would seem insurmountable.
Returning back to the teachers who did provide my class with a creative opportunity; we all thought that he had lost it. I remember trying to question him through the whole process, for a more specific description of the assignment. He kept his direction vague despite our efforts to crack him, and the only way I could describe how I felt was stumped. There seemed to be a mental block. If I didn't see a power point with notes on it, my brain flipped a switch off. As I've thought more about this experience I've realized that our school system has started to make it very easy for students to become lazy and lose the ability to be creative. It's a problem that's not talked about much, because it's the normal now.
Moving forward to senior year, I took another English class with a teacher who has developed a very innovative way of teaching. He understands that creativity has been taken out of learning and so he pushes us everyday to take our learning into our own hands and be creative in our approach, and at times this has been really uncomfortable. As we have done this I've learned a few of the reasons why we have become so lazy and uninspired in our learning. The biggest being that standardized testing breeds confidence based on a grade score A-F. Creativity can't necessarily be measured on a scale, which brings uncertainty of student's skills. Putting something out into the world that you created yourself, in chance of it being judged or criticized by someone else can be terrifying. Getting a low score on a test is much less intimidating than someone judging something you created. Confidence in general is something that teenagers struggle with already, and so standardized testing and note taking create a safety blanket to stay inside our comfort zones.
I'm not saying that this is something we can change overnight, but I do think it's possible to start to make a change. Already, two of my teachers have tried to implement creativity back into our learning and it's been very successful. Creativity drives our world, we would be nowhere if people didn't create and put their ideas out into the world. We must start to emphasize creative thinking and encourage students to push limits, try new things, and put their gifts out into the world. Our schools, our students, and our learning would be in a much better place if we could all incorporate these techniques in the classroom.
Returning back to the teachers who did provide my class with a creative opportunity; we all thought that he had lost it. I remember trying to question him through the whole process, for a more specific description of the assignment. He kept his direction vague despite our efforts to crack him, and the only way I could describe how I felt was stumped. There seemed to be a mental block. If I didn't see a power point with notes on it, my brain flipped a switch off. As I've thought more about this experience I've realized that our school system has started to make it very easy for students to become lazy and lose the ability to be creative. It's a problem that's not talked about much, because it's the normal now.
Moving forward to senior year, I took another English class with a teacher who has developed a very innovative way of teaching. He understands that creativity has been taken out of learning and so he pushes us everyday to take our learning into our own hands and be creative in our approach, and at times this has been really uncomfortable. As we have done this I've learned a few of the reasons why we have become so lazy and uninspired in our learning. The biggest being that standardized testing breeds confidence based on a grade score A-F. Creativity can't necessarily be measured on a scale, which brings uncertainty of student's skills. Putting something out into the world that you created yourself, in chance of it being judged or criticized by someone else can be terrifying. Getting a low score on a test is much less intimidating than someone judging something you created. Confidence in general is something that teenagers struggle with already, and so standardized testing and note taking create a safety blanket to stay inside our comfort zones.
I'm not saying that this is something we can change overnight, but I do think it's possible to start to make a change. Already, two of my teachers have tried to implement creativity back into our learning and it's been very successful. Creativity drives our world, we would be nowhere if people didn't create and put their ideas out into the world. We must start to emphasize creative thinking and encourage students to push limits, try new things, and put their gifts out into the world. Our schools, our students, and our learning would be in a much better place if we could all incorporate these techniques in the classroom.
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