Final Paper #3

Sheyanne Hughes

Professor Sonia Begert

March 19, 2014

English 101

Creativity in High School

What is high school for?  High school is an educational program to get you ready for your adult life and future career choices. Not only that, it’s a place where students find themselves and to be creative. If this is true, then why do so many students drop out or feel like they benefit so little from high school? Is graduation one of the greatest moments of your life because you’re finally moving on to bigger and better things or because you can finally stop coming to high school? If I were to change high school, I would make it so kids would actually want to go and would benefit greatly from it. With improving the school system to match more of the student’s personal interests and cater to their creativity, there would be more academic and personal achievement. High school would mean more to students in the sense that high school is something they want to do and not something they have to do.

The first change that should be made is to stop making so many budget cuts in the arts department. High schools focus so intently on science, math, history, and English. I agree that all of those subjects are very important by why should the arts be any different? Aren’t they just as important? The arts department is the creative side of education, while science, english, history, and math are the more technical and universal subjects of education. During my last year in high school, the arts department was targeted and was almost completely cut from my high school. Yet, students from the choir and band all stepped up and went to the school board meeting and defending the arts. If science or math was cut from high school, how many students do you think would be at a meeting defending it? The arts is a way for students to explore their minds and be creative. If schools were more understanding of students and didn't just fund math, science, english, and history, high school would be a much better place for those who want to express themselves. Keith Gilyard states, "It is not that in my own gloom I predict doom for the students. Children can learn and grow in other arrangements. I merely assert-and parents and community members who are rallying in an attempt to save the program agree-that at this point in the children's lives, afternoons they spend in the program are better than afternoons without it" (19). This being said, school should be not only an educational experience, but a fun one. Although I understand that funding for the arts is a problem, but a way to fix this would be to evenly do budget cuts from each department instead of wiping the arts clean of every penny it has. The arts are a program that are highly underestimated and should be taken more seriously for the sake of the students’ education.

The second change I would make is the teachers. In order for classes to be enjoyable, teachers must enjoy what they teach. They must be passionate about it. High schools need teachers who aren't just teaching because they just want their pay check, they need teachers who are passionate and love teaching. In the movie Chalk, there was a particular teacher who didn't much care about teaching his students; in fact, all he wanted was to win teacher of the year. And did he get it? No, he did not. In fact, one of his students was more advanced than he was, and the teacher got angry because it made him look bad and because he was ignorant. That teacher should have put his student in an advanced class. Described as the "differentiating function" by Gatto, he states, "Once their social role has been "diagnosed," children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits - and not one step further. So much for making kids their personal best" (John Taylor Gatto: Against Schools). This describes how teachers don't push their students to their full potential. A good teacher is active in their students' educational life and is willing to go above and beyond to make sure that student’s gets the education they need and not the education that others say they need. An example of this being Mrs. Gruwell from the movie Freedom Writers. Mrs. Gruwell is a teacher, who against all the odds, went the extra mile to give her kids the education they deserved because no one else gave it to them. She was passionate about her job. When one of the teachers from the school told her that eventually things would get easier amongst the rowdy group of students because eventually they would stop coming, she replied, “Well, hopefully I can get them lining up at the door.” This shows that she really wanted to teach her students and that she actually wanted them to want to be there. All teachers should carry passion to be able to push their students to their greatest level of academic achievement.

The third change I would make is the way school makes you think. There have been so many instances where students will cram right before a test, get a good grade, and then forget everything the next day. What good does that do for anyone? Instead of teachers making the students memorize subjects, they should be making students think outside the box. Of course, memorizing some things does have its place, but make it more than just memorizing. Ask questions that exceed the limit that expand your mind into thinking about things you never would consider. Instead of students being containers to fill you should make them seeds that you need to nourish to grow. As Paolo Friere stated in his Banking Concept of Education, "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor" (Ch. 2). This describes that teacher are doing nothing more than just filling a vessel, the students, and not expanding them.  Bell hooks also expands on this by stating, “Most children are taught early on that thinking is dangerous. Sadly, these children stop enjoying the process of thinking and start fearing the thinking mind” (9). This explains that the world today is taking away the passion of thinking. They’re making students dread and loathe thinking because they’ve been taught it’s pointless. Hooks states, “Those students who do not dread thinking will often come to classes assuming that thinking will not be necessary, that all they will need to do is consume information and regurgitate it at the appropriate moments” (9).  In order to make the students think, you must expand their minds. Are text books important? Of course they are, but to an extent. Don’t have the text book do the thinking for your students. Have teachers ask questions that make the students really think. Don’t make them afraid to think, let them know there is no right or wrong answer because every thought is worth thinking.

The educational system in high school is in dire need of change. With the arts becoming less important, students’ minds not being expanded, and passionless teachers, high school is going downhill. High school should be a fun place where students want to attend and want to learn. It is a milestone in a person’s life, so it should be an experience worth experiencing. If these changes were to be made, students would benefit greatly with their educational success.

Citations:

Chalk Dir. Mike Akel. Perf. Chris Mass, Troy Schremmer.
          Arts Alliance America, 2007. DVD.

Freedom Writers. Dir. Richard LaGravenese. Perf. Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey and Imelda                                                                                                             Staunton. Paramount Pictures, 2007. DVD.

Freire, Paolo.  "The Banking Concept of Education." Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York:                   Herder and Herder. 1970. Print

Gatto, John. "Against Schools: How Public Education Cripples Our Kids, And Why." Harper's    Magazine. Sept, 2003. Web. 13 Mar, 2014

hooks,bell. Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom. New York: Routledge.  Print

Gilyard, Keith. "Children, Arts, and Du Bois." National Council of Teachers of English, n.d.                                                     Web. Sept. 2012