How School Crushes Creativity

HAS TRADITIONAL EDUCATION BECOME AN UNHAPPY AND IRREPARABLY UNPRODUCTIVE PASSAGE FOR MOST CHILDREN? The answer is not clear-cut, but the question's social and economic overtones are. At a time when policymakers, social commentators and parents burst beyond the public-education system's boundaries to make topics of teacher accountability, school performance and federal subsidies a source of unending socioeconomic debate, traditional education is gradually denying students a key ingredient for existential fulfillment: creativity. The book explains why creativity and imagination are as momentous as math, reading and science, excavating new ground in the debate for a better school and supplying a theoretical foundation for the solving of some of the most vexing problems faced by modern-day educators, policymakers, social scientists and businesspeople. The book contains a helpful Discussion Guide. Through thought-provoking questions, the book gives extensive advice on how to use the discussion guide, how to inform decisions related to the topics at hand, and how to best read it - alone, in reading groups, with your partner, or as part of learning activities, among others.

After reading this book, you will understand:

Why schools kill creativity; Why experts think that creatively oriented curricula can help balance the current didactic gap; The upsetting detriments that children - and society as a whole - bear as a result of this gap; and The comprehensive yet feasible solutions that policymakers can implement to fix the creativity quandary and align academic objectives with the goals of businesses and society as a whole. Who will benefit from this book?

Federal education officials, including policymakers and specialists at the Department of Education; State and local policymakers; Teachers; Teacher unions; Education support professionals District and school leaders; Students; Families; and Business and community leaders.