CreateDebate


Debate Info

24
17
Yes, schools do. No, schools do not.
Debate Score:41
Arguments:35
Total Votes:48
More Stats

Argument Ratio

side graph
 
 Yes, schools do. (21)
 
 No, schools do not. (14)

Debate Creator

mssamantha(40) pic



Do schools kill creativity?

This debate is exclusivley for 3E2 students from Swiss Cottage Secondary.

Kindly refrain from participating if you are not in our class.


3E2 students, please provide examples/evidence/elaboration with your debate motion (your stand). Please provide support, that means include URLs to articles and such that support your motion. When you rebut a classmate's motion and their examples/evidence/elaboration, please be courteous as well as provide support for your rebuttle. 

 

If you get stuck, please refer to the Thinking Plans worksheet for new approaches/angles. Please think about relevance, vagueness, and the bigger picture. 


Have fun! I'm really looking forward to hearing your opinions. 

 

Yes, schools do.

Side Score: 24
VS.

No, schools do not.

Side Score: 17
4 points

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up” once said the great Pablo Picasso, a man who knew no creative bounds and knew no limits when it came to his comments. Do schools kill creativity just as Picasso implied? Indeed, they do. Creativity is an invaluable skill but by focusing too heavily on selected subjects, and downplaying the importance of creative skills, schools are in fact making it very difficult for students to be truly successful when they leave the comfort of their educational lives.

Creativity is an invaluable skill, and will prove to be a major asset for anyone who plans to be successful in the future. The quality and number of people graduating from University with a Bachelor Degrees, a Masters Degrees and even a PhD is increasing at an incredible rate. What will set someone apart from the rest in the future is not their number of ‘O’ Level distinctions, nor will their Degree from an Ivy League school, or the fact that their PHD dissertation won a major award. There will be a tremendous amount of qualified people applying for the same jobs. What will set someone apart is their ability to think differently, to think in new ways, to come up with new ideas, and to be innovative. In effect, what will set some apart from others is their ability to be creative.

As it stands, schools are cultivating all of those distinction achievers, those Ivy Leaguers, and those PHD bound students by focusing almost entirely on book smarts. Take, for example, the fact that Express students in Singapore cannot take Art after Secondary Two. Another example is that Design and Technology is only available to certain students. Are these subjects not valued? Are these subjects not preparing students to be those applicants who will know how to be creative, how to be different? In addition to the lack of these options, in the Express stream, students on average take eight classes, and the only two that lend themselves to creativity are English and Literature. The creative opportunity a student has in these subjects is limited because in order to be successful in these subjects, students must write papers whereby the main skill being examined is critical thinking, not creativity.

It must be said that there are a number of different educational philosophies and schools who do put more effort of creativity than others. It must also be noted that what it means to be creative, or to cultivate and encourage creativity mean different things to different people. Furthermore, some students who are in uncreative environments will find a way to be creative. There are also a number of schools, especially in North America whose focus is the Arts, such as the Julliard School. This issue is not black or white, it is not a yes or no, rather, it is quite complicated. It is not my aim to say that all schools kill creativity. It is my aim to say that many schools kill creativity and the general trend is to do just that.

Shortsighted educational philosophers, they are who we should blame. Teachers who prefer docility and tame students to those who have creative ideas and are forward thinkers, their heads should be on the chopping block. Societies who declare that math, science, memorization and successful standardized examination results are the only things students need to survive, they are at fault! Although Picasso might have felt this way, the truth is, where the blame rests is not the biggest issue at hand, rather, the biggest issue is how we put an emphasis on creativity in schools, how we take the very obvious fact that creativity is the very thing that will result in success in the future, and take advantage of that knowledge, how we make the most of our artistic children.

Links:

http://www.julliard.edu/

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

Talking about creativity, the first thing comes into my mind is always something very special and only few people can come up with this extraordinary idea. However, in schools, students are doing the same things which are relevant to limited number of subjects. Additionally, in schools, being creative usually means to be wrong simply because examinations only accept common solutions instead of special ways of thinking. It truly gives students a misconception of that they cannot be creative in order to achieve good results or enviable degrees. As a result, students only focus on robotic ways to solve problems and do not dare to think about new ideas. In this way, schools do kill creativity.

Creativity needs sufficient time to observe and think. However, schoolwork make students busy all the time. For example, most students need to stay at school from early in the morning to the evening. They even go for tuition on weekends to get extra consultation. Schoolwork takes away most time of students so that students have no time to think about the questions they are interested in. As a result, students are trained to think critically but their potential to be creative is not tapped sufficiently. Students may be able to do well in selected subjects but their thinking skills are mediocre.

I remember that a American expert said that knowledge was the base of creativity. He also added that if someone did not have enough knowledge, his creativity was sightless and useless. This expert emphasized the importance of education, which indirectly claimed that schools were the source of creativity. In my opinion, education is necessary for students' creative abilities. Education experiences themselves are not killing creativity, it is the common ways of teaching, leading and thinking which are shaped by schools kill creativity.

To conclude, schools kill creativity essentially because they teach all the students in the same way and leave less free time to students, which really limits their thinking and takes away the spirit of daring to try. According to Confucius, the most well-known Chinese philosopher, schools are supposed to teach students in accordance with their aptitude. In my opinion, each student is unique and talented in different areas. If they are educated in the same way, there will be no ideological differences among them. Our schools are supposed to encourage students to develop their personal strength and expand their supernormal ideas.

Links:

http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/ Do_Schools_Kill_Creativity#

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Ms Sam:

You said that "students on average take eight classes, and the only two that lend themselves to creativity are English and Literature. " I am not quite agree with this because I think every subject can lead to creativity (for example, the creative experiments in science lessons). The problem is how schools teach these subjects.

Side: Yes, schools do.
3E2AQIANG(2) Disputed
1 point

AQIANG:You(wanBo) are saying that language subjects allowed creativity while the others do not.I beg to differ,every subject do accept creativity in them.For instance,you can make use of the knowledge you learnt in physics and create your unique simple mechanism.

Side: No, schools do not.
1 point

Alex - can you say that ALL subjects allow for creativity? I think it would be a hard argument to support. How does one be creative in a subject like math? Perhaps at a higher level, whereby you are creating your own formulas, but even so, isn't math math because it is so finite, so right or wrong?

Side: No, schools do not.
mssamantha(40) Disputed
1 point

Wan Bo - I think that you make a good deal of valid points, and bring forward thought provoking evidence/support.

I think that your point in paragraph three is a tricky one to support. Do we really know what comes first, creativity or knowledge? It is a bit of a chicken versus the egg argument and I don't know that we can be sure, even if an American expert believes so. Do knowledge and creativity go hand in hand, yes, I do believe so. Do they stimulate each other, yes I do believe so.

As for your argument about not being taught in the right the right way, I think that is very interesting. Is it fair to say that there is only one way to be taught, though? Can we say that it is realistic to provide differentiated learning for 40 plus students in a class? I think it needs to be said that there are constraints of teachers and that although I believe schools kill creativity, teachers are thinking about ways to allow for creative expression and development.

As for my point about two subjects facilitating creativity, I think you're right, there are other subjects that allow for some creativity. I think, though, that the two I mentioned allow for the most creativity. When doing a science project, their are confines and guidelines that you must adhere to, isn't that the case?

Side: No, schools do not.
3e2javierr(3) Disputed
1 point

Mr wanbo- You mention in your second paragraph that ''Schoolwork takes away most time of students so that students have no time to think about the questions they are interested in'' so are you blaming that schoolwork is the big baddy or main culprit that kills creativity? Honestly i beg to differ, as you can't exactly expect a student to be busy with his schoolwork from after school till night, no matter how busy a person is, there will always be time for a person to think, eg, when in the toliet, or when going out with the family, or even spending some quality time with himself/herself.

Also, time-management plays an important role, when a student manages his/her time well, then they will have time to do whatever they like besides studying and this will include spending some time to think :) Most importantly it all lies in the student himself/herself, if the student wants to put all the blame on schoolwork for not giving himself/herself time to to observe and think about creativity, as you mentioned,''Creativity needs sufficient time to observe and think.'', then it will be the student's fault and not schoolwork.

Side: No, schools do not.
3e2javierr(3) Disputed
0 points

Mr wanbo- You mention in your second paragraph that ''Schoolwork takes away most time of students so that students have no time to think about the questions they are interested in'' so are you blaming that schoolwork is the big baddy or main culprit that kills creativity? Honestly i beg to differ, as you can't exactly expect a student to be busy with his schoolwork from after school till night, no matter how busy a person is, there will always be time for a person to think, eg, when in the toliet, or when going out with the family, or even spending some quality time with himeself/herself.

Also, time-management plays an important role, when a student manages his/her time well, then they will have time to do whatever they like besides studying and this will include spending some time to think :) Most importantly it all lies in the student himself/herself, if the student wants to put all the blame on schoolwork for not giving himeself/herself time to to observe and think about creativity, as you mentioned,''Creativity needs sufficient time to observe and think.'', then it will be the student's fault and not schoolwork.

Side: No, schools do not.
mssamantha(40) Disputed
1 point

Javier - interesting points.

I think that in a way, you are arguing that people need to have the motivation to be creative. Of course, you are all busy, as most people in the world are. If one truly wants to be a creative person, they must take the initiative to do so. In effect, it's not really about whether schools kill creativity or not. Am I on the right track?

I wonder where creative blocks (times or periods where people just cannot come up with new ideas) come into play with this all. think it's interesting that people take time away from it all just to be creative. These people suffer from creative blocks though too.

Side: Yes, schools do.
mssamantha(40) Disputed
1 point

As for having time, take a look at this website. I'm not entirely convinced about it's credibility, but, it's saying that in order to be creative, people need to be aware of the creative process -- which takes TIME.

http://www.productiveflourishing.com/demystifying-the-creative-process/

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

I agree that school kills creativity.

What we learn in school all comes from textbook, creativity is not needed at all. Students are only limited to doing their homework, study for examinations, nothing requires creativity. Everything we learn in school is already planned, students just have to follow it. Schools have a strict structure where students have to do things at the teacher’s pace rather than their own. Schools also restrict the subjects students can take, what if the student is interested in taking up music, but schools do not offer music as a subject? This will cause them to limit on their own creativity. Not only that, when students are given projects, some teachers want the end product to be what they wanted, students are not given the opportunity to use their own creativity to complete their own projects. Also, teachers do not accept our answers because they think that it is illogical, for example, History is a source based question, different people interpret it differently, they answer it according to what they think, but teachers do not accept it, while some even expect us to think the same way. Students were not able to think out of the box.

Sir Ken Robinson said during a conference: “And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Picasso once said this. He said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.”

To conclude, schools kill creativity because they do not let students think out of the box, their creativity will not be developed. Therefore schools kill creativity.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

Jolin - you make excellent points and I agree with most of them. Your example about history is quite interesting (although, if you were to use something like that in an argumentative essay, I suggest you give an even more in depth example. Can you think of a particular history question where this happens or one where it happened to you). Your example about projects is also quite interesting.

You paint a picture of a very boring, dull, educational system. Do you think that even students who really want to be creative can at all? Even a little?

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

I feel that school kills creativity because schools follows a syllabus set by the Ministry of Education (MOE), and every teacher is expected to teach according to the syllabus. Most of the time, teachers would have trouble finishing the syllabus and hence, do not have extra time to plan activities. It kills creativity as every student will just follow the education system and study according to it. Studying according to what MOE sets is killing creativity. Students study the same thing and there isn’t a chance for them to think out of the box. Students will just study what they are told to, killing their creativity.

In addition, especially for humanities subjects, students are expected to memorise facts and details in order to score for that subject for the Structured Essay Question (SEQ) segment. Memorising text to score for a subject is killing creativity as students just write what the textbook or notes say in the exam. It is not what they really think or feel when they argue for a stand and hence they cannot come up with original ideas, killing their creativity.

Most of the time, students are expected to produce what the teachers expect them to do. Students do not have the freedom to do what they wish to. For example: During project work, when students are expected to do a drama or a skit, they might have great ideas, but they might be not able to use it because teachers limit them to certain extent. Students might then lose confidence in themselves and hence might not think of better ideas in the future, killing their creativity.

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

Rui Ying, I am really intrigued about the point you make in your last paragraph about confidence. Do you need to be practice being creative in order to reach your creativity potential because we need to be confident about our creative capacity?

You know how much I believe in confidence, so I am inclined to think that you do need confidence in order to be creative. Perhaps, even, you need confidence to Dare to Try being creative, especially so in a system that requires so much rigid knowledge (or textbook knowledge).

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

i believe it does take art for instince that class is supposed to let you show a creative side of you but you get gradded on it if the teacher doesnt like it you fail if they like it you pass the problem is the grade you on what you call art its wrong and stoopid

Side: Yes, schools do.
mssamantha(40) Disputed
1 point

Smartt14 - May I ask, are you a member of the class of 3/4E2 from Swiss Cottage Secondary School?

Side: No, schools do not.
1 point

I agree that schools kill creativity.

Creativity is the use of the imagination. However, we do not get enough time and opportunities in school to make use of our imagination.

In schools, students are not given the chance to explore into the depth of creativity within them. Often, it is restrained due to the constant fear of humiliation and embarrassment if they make a point that seems silly to the rest. This damages the creativity of the children and he or she will refrain from speaking up in the future. If he or she does not speak up, his imagination will not be utilized to the maximum ability. Thus, schools are places where students refrain from letting their imagination run wild, which in turn leads to them being less creative.

We often see in schools students who look dull, and sometimes, bored as they rarely speak up. This affects their learning capabilities and also their speaking abilities.

Hence, I believe that schools kills creativity. I do hope that students will start learning to speak up in class and share with their classmates their creative ideas.

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

Wai Kit,

Good points! I wonder, when does this restraint start? Primary school? Do you hane any suggestions as to how we can stop it from happening?

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

Creativity simply means that you have the ability to think and create something new and different. I agree that schools kills creativity as students only focus on getting a good grade and in the process of getting a good grade, all they do is to study within our syllabus as Ministry Of Education(MOE) has set out a syllabus to be tested for our major exams like O level. Therefore, since students are confined by the thoughts of getting good grades, they only focus on their syllabus and do not take time to explore more interesting things outside of their syllabus.

By only focusing on their syllabus, students do not have the freedom to express their creativity as most of their studying is to memorise facts so that they will be able to do well for their examinations. For example, in humanities subjects, students have to answer Structured Essay Questions(SEQ) and in order to do well, they have to memorise facts from their textbook or notes and use those facts to answer the questions. Most students find it a chore to memorise so much facts but they have no choice. This kills creativity as the students are just writing down what they memorise from their textbook or notes and not express how they feel about a certain issue by using their creativity.

Besides that, even in school projects, when students use their creativity to express how they feel through their work, their work is rejected as it does not fulfill the criteria being set by their teachers. This limits their creativity as they are not given freedom to express how they feel as they are restricted to the criteria set by their teachers.

I believe that all students have creativity but as they step into school, their creativity gradually gets lesser and lesser. Give a young kid a crayon and he can draw you anything under the sun. This shows that young kids have very good creativity but as they grow older, they are being restricted to having creativity due to expectations in school. Quoting Ken Robinson, "What these things have in common is that kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. Am I right? They're not frightened of being wrong. Now, I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original -- if you're not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity."

Therefore, I agree that schools kills creativity.

Supporting Evidence: Ken Robinson Video (www.ted.com)
Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

yes school does kill creativity....as you can see, everything we do in school, it always have to be law by law, most of the things have to be done in sequence, it doesn't really allow us the students to do what we think is suitable for the school, teachers would only ask us to do proposals and submit to them when there is an activity like a camp or something. however, most of the proposals who never ever be accepted in the first try as teachers would not like the idea of the stuff we propose to them and etc and ask us to go and mend it or something... most of the cases the reason they gave us is that the school has its code and conduct and such things cannot be done in a school compound and etc. thus this is the main reason that the creative ideas that we students gave at first were rejected. i strongly agree that school does kill creativity as there are too many binds holding on to many rules to follow

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

I agree that schools do kill creativity.

Schools all have a standard curriculum and syllabus that teachers and students have to follow for the sake of the main goal being; scoring well for a major exam.

Creativity is defined as the production of using original and unusual ideas. I think that schools do teach us new things through various subjects, but it limits our creativity in a certain way, making us too used to not thinking out of the box.

For example, this can be seen through subjects such as the humanities; although it teaches us about history and the past mistakes people have made, or places around the world and how landforms are formed, memory work plays a huge role in such subjects and students have to spend a huge amount of time cramming all the facts into their heads for the essays and exams they are being put through and thus, they are not given the time to think about their own opinion on the issue itself. Students are so focused on getting excellent grades that they do not even bother to create or think about their own feelings on the whole issue.

Besides the humanities, subjects such as mathematics and sciences are very 'fixed'. They each have their own set of formulas that one has to adhere to in order to solve a question or a sum correctly. If students try to think of different ways to solve the question, it won't be accepted or it will be marked wrongly. Therefore, the students' creativity is limited as they lose confidence in giving their own opinion on something, for the fear of it being rejected or marked incorrectly.

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

I agree that schools kill creativity as the schools only teach a certain area of things and not everything under the sun, they do not broaden our perspective yet they only follow the syllabus set by the Ministry of Education(MOE).

The schools do not have their own decision of what to teach and the schools are only keen on getting good results, for example, the 'O' level examinations, where the schools would be banded according to the results the students of the school get. The students are only reading from the textbooks and not what is beyond it. Also, what is tested in the examinations are only from the textbooks, thus the students will have a mindset that studying the textbook is enough and they will not go and explore more. For example, humanities, like History. Students have to study the textbook and model essays in order for them to get good grades.

When there is a project to be completed by the students, they would be a rubric telling the students in order to fulfil some requirement of the project. Thus, the students are not able to express what they feel and this limit their creativity as it might not be in the rubric and the student will not get a very good grade and in this competitive world, students would want to get good grades.

The schools also plan many enrichment and activities for the students to attend after school, thus the students might not be able to have time to spend extra time doing other recreation things and broaden their perspectives.

Therefore, I agree that schools kill creativity

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

Schools kill not only creativity. You may think tha5 we have art for a reason, but they limit your imagination. When we want to draw a war, or guns or even something violent, they punish you. We can't have free rein over what we draw or try to create. They set a limit to our imagination saying things like DRAW UNICORNS AND DORA. So it makes it boring to draw and such. It also kills our free time because we have to sit in a classroom and then only given like 30 minutes for luch. Some schools even limit what you eat. Schools in general kill Every thing but homework.

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

From my sister: YUP. Schools kill creativity. They make us where uniforms and we are not able to express ourselves the way we want. They make us wear certain things such as collar shirts and black pants. They won't let you draw during classes and they hate our ideas.

Side: Yes, schools do.
frans(2) Banned
2 points

in my opinion,school didn't kill creativity as we know that there is so many school that give chances to their student to show their talent.and the teacher also can help the student to improve their abilities.but,school also have to give the student freedom to show their talent,and know how to make their students become more actively show their talent,and let them doing what they want without any stupid rules that can make their student become lazy and don't have any interest about their creativity

Side: No, they do not.
2 points

I believe that schools do not kill creativity.Instead, school is the place which provides us knowledge. Knowledge is the base of creativity. If creativity is like a sparkle, knowledge is the wood. If we want to get raging flames, only creativity is not enough at all. Everyone has ideas, but the one who make there ideas to reality is the one who has the knowledge.Hence, school do not kill creativity but provide solid foundation for creativity.

Side: No, schools do not.
mssamantha(40) Disputed
1 point

Jiaqi,

Please see the comment I made on Wan Bo's argument. You both are still not proving that knowledge is necessary for creativity. Although you provide analogies, I'm still not convinced that you need knowledge for creativity.

Children are creative, aren't they? Even very young children know how to pretend play, they are not necessarily using knowledge, they are using their imagination.

Which one comes first? I do no know that anyone has answered that question or will be able to.

Side: Yes, schools do.
2 points

I believe schools do not kill creativity. In my opinion, school is a place for us to learn new stuff and gain new knowledge, and not a place that kills the creativity of students. For me, i believe that it all depends on the student himself/herself on expressing his/her creativity. For example, a school can spam and give a student or the whole cohort lots of enrichment that encourages creativity and other aspects of learning but it all boils down to wheather the student is willing to even learn it. A student can just brush off the enrichment as crap or another boring enrichment and thus the main aim of the enrichment is not met thus we cannot always say that schools kill creativity.

Many say that the tight-schedule present in most of the student's timetable and the strict control of freedom prevents students from expressing their creativity, however, there is always other areas where students can express their creavitity such as taking courses out of the school context, example, learning painting, also there's something call Time-management RIGGHHT?, if students can manage their time-well , there will defineity be a chance for them to express their creativity through activities in school such as CCAs, arts, and even music.Thus we cannot always say that schools kill creativity.

Knowlege is needed for creativity, and without knowlege, there's no creativity, thus school is the place where it brings us knowlege to enhance and bring out the greatness of creativity within students!! Thus i do not agree that schools kill creativity. yay

Side: No, schools do not.
1 point

Javier - Your point about enrichments and wanting be creative is pretty strong. Is this alright, though? When creativity is so important for the future, how can we just let people pass up the limited (or maybe not so limited) chances to be creative?

As for your point about time management, I see a bit of a flaw. If students are worried about time, how can the answer be to sign up for something outside of school that requires more of their time?

Side: No, schools do not.
1 point

actually no, school does not kill crteativity. school actually encourages it. i mean the teachers like art ,music, drama, and choir help u reach potential goals so u can get better at what u really like to do!!!!

Side: No, they do not.
1 point

I do not feel that schools kill creativity.In fact, I feel that the school is the place where the creativity of the students is being realised and developed.The school provides many opportunities for students to make use of their creativity.For instance,during art lessons, students can use their creativity to draw something unique.When doing projects or writing essays,students can make use of their creativity to come up with interesting ideas and stories.

Side: No, schools do not.
mssamantha(40) Disputed
1 point

Aloy - What about the fact that you wear uniforms? That you are forced to maintain a certain hairstyle/hair colour? That you have a very limited number of subject options as an express student?

Based on what you have provided us, perhaps it is fair to say that you believe schools develop creativity, but they certainly are not allowing for full creative potential to be realised. You do not prove that at all.

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

In my opinion, schools do not kill creativity. We have subjects such as music, art, and CCAs that encourage creativity. For example, in art, we are given a topic, yet, things that are related to that topic can be drawn in many ways and can be seen in different perspectives. This is where our creativity comes in. Even in subjects like English, we can use our creativity in the compositions we write. There fore, it is shown that the schools allows the students to develop their creativity.

Side: No, schools do not.
mssamantha(40) Disputed
1 point

Yoke Mun - Please see the points I made regarding Aloy's response. They are applicable to yours as well.

Side: Yes, schools do.
1 point

No,schools do not kill creativity.For me,I feel that school is a place where we constantly gaining new knowledge.I believe with the aid of this "non-stop fuel",student will actually be more creative than before.Students' can make use of their creativity in different ways,for instance,students can put in their creative thoughts into composition writing and lyrics writing for cheer leading sessions or even competition.Thus,school allows you to burn your flame of creativity and no kills.

Side: No, schools do not.
3E2WaiKit(2) Disputed
1 point

Aqiang:

However, during composition writing, students are given a specific topic to write about, which definitely reduces the chances of them making full use of their creative ideas.

Students are only able to make use of half of their creativity, which means that schools play a part in killing creativity.

Side: Yes, schools do.