Education suppresses creativity
by Adeline Crasto, Anisha D?Souza, Divya Canary Tellis
When we talk about creativity, we refer to the ability to make new things or think new ideas. It is said that a creative person can survive in any situation. Children are referred to as the most creative of all. The ideas and thoughts they generate will be greater than that of a scientist at times. From the time they learn to walk they try out innovative things. Even though they fail at times, they do not lose hope and keep trying. What will happen to these children if they are not allowed to think and kept under the control of someone and are made to do whatever the other person tells? Wouldn’t that child be experiencing the life of a bird in the cage or that of the animals in the zoo? Their life is restricted only to the iron bars or the strong fence. This is exactly what our education system is doing to the children in the present day.
In India, the literacy rate has been increasing. Because of the various schemes of the government such as the sarvashiksha abhiyan, many schools have been set up and many children are getting educated. But the question arises as to do they get quality education. A report had revealed that a class 5 student is not able to read a class 2 text book. So we can imagine what type of education is been given to such children.
In schools they merely learn to mug up and produce the same on a piece of paper. They do not use their reasoning to understand what they need to write. They just reproduce the same lines from their textbook or their notes. After the exam is over if you ask them anything about the subject they won’t be knowing anything they leave everything they had studied during the entire course in the examination hall itself. There is no carry forward. Most of the students involve in malpractice. The situation has become so worse that parents themselves help the students by climbing the walls of the schools and passing the notes inside the examination hall. Many such cases have been recorded in India.
Exams in present days are acting as a tool to judge not the amount of knowledge obtained but a tool to judge intelligence. This the reason for many students taking the wrong path of they fail in a particular examination. They consider themselves worthless. They fail to realise that this is just a minor thing because they have been fed with this wrong notion from their childhood that the ones who fail in the examination are incompetent. They forget that some of the great innovators of inventors were the ones who were rejected by everyone but because of their faith in self they became the most successful people.
Many schools and colleges claim that they are encouraging their students to be more creative and think out of the box but ultimately what they value is just marks. Marks have become the most important criteria to judge the intelligence of students. Lack of flexibility in the education system is the reason for it. The old methods of university system are followed wherein neither the teachers nor the colleges are allowed to evaluate the students based on their ability to understand and interpret a particular topic or subject. Marks obtained that too by the valuations made by some unknown people are the basis on which the students are judged. This kills the true innovator in a student. He or she just becomes a machine who acts on certain commands.
In countries like India students are made to be in college or school for 8 to 9 hours. Most of them consider this as unproductive time because there is nothing that the students are actually learning inside the four walls. Instead if you take them for a field study or on an industrial visit there is something of value they learn by observations. Observational learning is said to have more impact on students rather than the conventional classroom learning. This involves not just seeing but also analysing on the part of the students. They use their intellect to judge whether what is happening is right or wrong. This involves processing and implementation of new ideas.
In countries like the US they prefer something known as home schooling. Under this system the children do not go to school instead they study at their homes. In this manner not only do they get to spend time with their parents but also are comfortable to study. The environment in which a student studies also affects his or her level of understanding. Parents are the ones who are required to understand this. They should not admit their children to any particular school or college just for the sake of keeping them away from home or merely to discipline them. They should opt for a place where their children would be given the freedom of thought. Because merely knowledge is not enough a person should also possess the required intellect and ability to apply this knowledge whenever required. This is possible through creativity. Suppressing the creativity in a child will not only result in the child becoming a dullard but also they develop the instinct within them that they cannot do anything.
Author: Anisha Dsouza- India