The
k-12 curriculum in the words of sir Ken Robinson "educates you
out of creativity, in school we are taught subjects in the order of
their importance with Mathematics at the top followed by the
Languages then the humanities and at the bottom are the arts."
Is this this how we should allow the system to mold the minds of the
generation to come? Is the future not to be built on ideas and
creativity to ensure that every human unlocks their potential and makes the world a better place? The current k-12 curriculum in itself
forces students to learn what it is believed that they need to learn
other than what they want or desire to learn, this stifles their
freedom and creativity it prevents them from truly working towards
becoming the person they really want to become. We then teach our
students that individuality is a right, a precious gem, while our
system focuses on a small demographic. In reality what we are saying
to our children is [Yes it is ok to have your own sense of creativity, yes it is ok to be individuals and be expressive in a
manner you are comfortable with, however in the real world only
people who are pursuing certain professions are focused on.] Students
who have a passion for the other subjects are "...steered away
from things you like on the grounds that you would never get a job
doing that" and these subjects are viewed as less important.
Here in the Jamaican education system in high schools, they rotate a
set of subjects for the classes each year depending on the year you
enter the tenth grade, for example a set of students from one year
would have classes that focus on the sciences while the students of
the year behind would have classes that focus more on technical
designs; however this depends on the school. Jamaican High Schools
all belong to a particular data set where a school is either a
Traditional High School, a Technical High School or an Upgraded High
School. The Traditional High School are the schools that every child
works hard on entering, however most Traditional High School Focuses
more on teaching the Sciences and Languages with the Arts being the
most over looked subject area. The curriculum is geared towards
cultivating Children of Law, Children of Sciences, and Children of
Humanities and rarely Children of the Arts. This can be the product
of the world and the places the system focuses on the Sciences, the
Languages and the Humanities, and this has been so for years, every
parent works hard to allow their child to be able and set goals on
attending the Traditional High Schools as opposed to a Technical High
School or a Upgraded High school on the premise that the Traditional
High school is the better choice for every child while this is not
so, not every child would like a profession in the Sciences or Languages, some wold much rather to do the Arts unfortunately the
Arts in the Jamaican traditional High School are seen as an extra
curricular activities and its only value is ironically to ensure that
the students are well rounded. This system is stifling our children
who are being forced to abandon their artistic dreams so they can be
seen as 'upstanding citizens'. The most important change this
system needs is to make all classes available to the students who
wish to study in specified areas as opposed to being forced to learn
subjects other than the core classes of mathematics and the languages.
In
order to learn successfully the willingness to learn is usually
essential, having the drive and being enthused about the things you
are learning makes the process easier and feels rewarding but with
the current k-12 curriculum it is near impossible to learn in this
way. "Every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of
subjects, at the top are Mathematics and the languages then the
humanities and at the bottom the arts" with a curriculum based
on such a hierarchy students are taught what society believes they
should learn based on what the society believe to be important. This
can be seen in our workplaces, no longer are people eager to work, no
longer are people bursting with fresh new ideas for improvement. It
is impossible to do so when you are doing what the world wants you to
do not what you love and desire to do, this curriculum limits the
creativity of students and restricts their freedom of choice limiting
their potential needed to create a society where everyone is
considered a valuable member of it, instead of thinking freely we are
made to memorize information only to regurgitate it which is not
truly learning anything, as John Keating in Dead Poets Society says
"I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think
for yourself" and our system does not allow that, we see it in
our classrooms on our exams there is no room for discussing the
endless possibilities. Sir Ken Robinson explains "we don't grow
into creativity, we grow out of it, or more like we are educated out
of it." The current education system isn't designed to produce
better students but to; as Sir Ken Robinson says "....the whole
purpose of public education throughout the world is to produce
university professors" because in this era that is what is seen
as a stable job or a stable form of income. Therefore imagination is
no longer valuable which will only lead to trouble in the future, we
are still discovering the Earth after billions of years of evolution,
as we are discovering more ways to reach the corners of the universe,
for this imagination is essential and the current system does not
encourage the growth of it our aspirations are useless without it.
It is time for a change.
The current academic system, the k-12
curriculum is outdated "our education system is predicated on
the idea of academic ability and there is a reason, the whole system
was created around the world, there were no public systems before the
19th century, they all came in to meet the needs of industrialism"
and that age is over, we are in an era of intellectual progression
that has a need for more free thinkers, imagination and creativity.
In order to make this change schools need to have a wider subject
range and variety that should be made available to the students so
they can freely choose for example some schools are only limited to
visual arts (drawing) and performing arts listed under drama or
acting, other art classes such as sculpting painting cinematography
dance music and wood carving would be nice additions to the
curriculum. Teachers need to be more attentive to the interests of
their students allow for the curiousity and the need to learn and
explore to manifest and build so that the students may find a path
that they wish to take professionally and help should be given to
guide them to this point. Our students will be the one to take this
world further, progress is needed but without imagination we will be
frozen, never moving forward.
Works Cited Page
Robinson,
Ken. "How school kills creativity." TED Talk: Feb 2006.
Web.Freire, Paulo. "An Incredible Conversation." World Conference on Literacy Interview. 1996. Web
