Divergent Thinking

FAWR-101-M05
Melody (Hiu Tung) Fong
Professor Karkala
Essay #2
Title:
Change is an unavoidable part of life. Whether the changes are positive or negative, they are influenced by the actions performed by the surrounding people. Pursuing this further, it is important that the education system change for the better because education plays ambiguous role in people’s lives. A way to improve the current education system is to promote divergent thinking starting a young age. Young children are often punished for thinking divergently, yet this ability is encouraged in the society.
Divergent thinking isn’t the same as creativity, but it is a key component to it. It is the ability to see various possible solutions to a question. In school, children are always told that there is only one correct answer to every problem. They are mandated to follow the methods and answers given by textbooks and teachers. That’s the way things work from elementary school all the way to high school; divergent thinking isn’t a popular ability a teacher would want from a young student.
The reason why divergent thinking is rejected in our education system is because if it is encouraged in a classroom filled with kindergarteners, it would be more difficult for teachers to teach with the distractions of the various thoughts and opinions that young children would come up with. So in society, teachers would rather limit divergent thinking by showing children unrewarding responses to make the teaching process smoother. Instead of restricting children from divergent thinking purely because it would be easier for teachers to teach, a different approached should be used in the current education system. The point is to teach children that in order to think divergently, they must first master learning the accepted ways before they differentiate. It may sound like a tricky concept for children to comprehend, but the message could be delivered in simple ways.

An example is when children are told to construct the famous squared-picture frame using Popsicle sticks in arts and craft class. A lot of time children would be preoccupied with building the frame in shapes of their likings rather than keeping it a perfect square. Instead of scolding them and telling them what they’re doing is wrong, teachers should encourage them to first get done what they are told to make the proper way, and if they have time they can make a picture frame in any way they wish. Another more relatable example is when students don’t receive credit on a test for using a different method than the one expected from the teacher. Students are punished and penalized for using methods of their own. Any other methods other than the ones given by teachers or textbooks are found unacceptable. Students don’t receive the credits that they feel they deserved on the test, and they also receive the image of being a ‘trouble-maker’.