Hope for Creativity?

I left class on Thursday feeling a little discouraged about our education system.  Why should standardized tests kill creative learning in classroom settings? Why is the focus on passing exams when focus should be on children grasping new concepts and become more confident, well-rounded, individuals?  School sucks. People in administration CLEARLY don’t get it.  Pretty soon everyone will be walking around, living life in a mundane fashion…and probably only wearing shades of grey.  Let’s face it, if we send our kids to school each and every day where they are bored to death and where fun is pushed underneath test scores, they’ll eventually be habitualized to boredom. A life without creativity will become the norm….  Hello grey cardigans, perfectly slicked down hair, and no laughter.

Okay maybe I’m a little overdramatic….but seriously, something has to be done because I like fun creative thinking and being interested in learning.  I don’t want that to be taken away from future generations.  Something HAS to be done about this. Of course a complete ‘revolution’ of the system will take time and a lot of persistence from A LOT of supporters, I started thinking about what could be done RIGHT NOW? …if anything.

I fully believe that teachers, right now, in the midst of the testing craze, can sneak in creative moments to make learning fun.  But HOW??  First off, thank goodness for Pintrest.  It is AMAZING how many ideas are on that site!!  Teachers can post their ideas, share other ideas they’ve found and inspire teachers everywhere to sneak in creativity wherever possible.  So obviously, there is still some hope for fun.   There are a lot of teachers who stand behind creative teaching….and they want to keep their classrooms filled with life.   This article posted by the National Education Association gives suggestions on how to keep teaching fun for students but still satisfy the school boards by “teaching the tests” http://www.nea.org/tools/54782.htm. There are teachers out there who clearly want to keep learning fun for students and they all support one another and share ideas/suggestions. This gives me hope.  Although the tests are top priority to the “higher ups”, it’s still possible for teachers to make a difference in their individual students learning experience! They can still inspire and sneak in fun learning! All is not completely at a loss...There is still hope for creativity!!!  ….and we can do all this while we figure out what can be done to change the education system on a national level, because the one currently in place isn't really working for us.