Creativity In America

I am writing today to discuss the slow depletion of creativity from the coming generations of young Americans. In a report made by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, a creativity test administered to millions of people showed a grave decline in their creativity scores as years progressed. The largest decline being in the demographic of children between kindergarten and sixth grade. Numbers don’t lie, and outlined in the publication there’s no doubt the ability to create for our nation’s youth has declined. Of course many things can contribute to such an obscure problem. However, I believe faults in our school system bear much of the blame for the students shortcomings. As a result, it is necessary for some preventative action to be in place to prevent an outbreak from becoming an epidemic. Before the problem can be effectively handled we must first understand the lack of creativity as well as its consequences. As mentioned before, the range of children most impacted by the loss of creativity are those between kindergarten and sixth grade. This is quite a
shocking statistic considering many children build their creative minds during these years. Particularly during kindergarten and first grade kids participate in crafts and projects. These help build a solid foundation in creative thinking for future years to come. Without these early learning skills it seems very probable that children are going to lose sight of their creative thinking. The consequences of this are quite clear. Complex problems of the world continue to grow and without a strong creative base to face them they may never be fixed. With the issue now dissected I can see a few possible causes for America’s lack of creativity.
With each passing year I am watching teachers ditch old lessons geared for creative development in exchange for advanced topics. For example kindergarteners no longer have coloring time but instead are practicing early math skills. Even my grandmother, a retired kindergarten teacher frequently comments on the advanced topics replacing old lessons. Frequently, the new topics throw out creative thinking for logical thinking like math and reading. Why schools are shifting to this new form of education is a whole other topic itself. Perhaps schools who implement the new structure see improvements in academics or ACT scores. If so there’s no doubt it would cause a diffusion effect of other schools following suit. Regardless it seems very necessary to monitor the effects of changing curriculum especially in young
students. Although drastic repealment of the current curriculum may not be the best course of action, there is things that can be done. For example further study and investigation into the rapid loss of creativity would be a good start. As with any dilemma there is almost always more than one cause and identifying them all would be ideal. Next, schools should pay more attention to the creative development of their students at a young age. There is too much emphasis on putting up good grades rather than the good context that comes with (i.e. creative thinking). If we first try these simple patches there is a good probability that we can prevent this problem from becoming an epidemic.