Broward County Schools 'TED Talk' Do Schools Kill Creativity

Creative Minds Matter Creativity and innovation are the keys to success in our world’s economy. Studies show that creativity has decreased in American children, possibly due to our education system’s focus on standardized testing and teaching. Our children’s future success depends on the level of creative education they receive in school. Creativity is the ability to think in new or unusual ways to create a product or service. Knowledge alone will not progress without imagination and innovation. So, why is it that Broward County Schools’ curriculum and teaching protocol discourages creative thinking from our students? As Ken Robinson’s TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” points out, our school system is destroying our children’s creative

First, there are not enough of these specialized schools in Broward County. Records show that in the 2015-16 school year, there are 268,836 students enrolled in Broward County Public School system with 355 total number of schools. Of that 355 schools, only 19 offer the specific teaching methods discussed above. This means that less than 7,000 students are profiting from creative learning encouragement. Obviously, Broward County Schools has missed the mark. In short, not enough schools and not enough students are benefiting from the initiative of getting creativity back in students’ curriculum. Secondly, Broward County students and parents are faced with a transportation challenge. Broward County Public Schools buses do not transport students to these specialized schools unless they are within the busing zone. Therefore, the student and the parent have to overcome this challenge by finding a daily means of transport to and from school. Finally, students are not automatically enrolled into these initiative programs. Acceptance into one of these schools requires an application process and in some schools, a certain level of academic accomplishments by the student. This process by itself excludes those same students who would benefit even more from the creative learning modeled schools. Clearly, the implementations in place are an inadequate attempt to resolve the lack of

First, Broward County schools should implement a collaborative divergent problem solving model where the students are taught the same subject matter presently in our school systems, however, they are encouraged to interact, brain-storm and think outside the box for a solution. This allows the students the opportunity explore and imagine a better way to resolve the issue at hand. There is no right or wrong answer, instead the student will demonstrate understanding of the material by finding an alternative solution by working in groups and having open conversations and discussions. For example, the instructor will present the subject matter with the use of a media player in the classroom. The instructor could briefly summarize key factors in the film and assign the students into different discussion groups where individual participation is essential without any one students’ role being undercut. Each student in the group has a key role or responsibility so that the group is able to resolve the issue collaboratively. Let’s say five groups were established but there is only one right answer, there should be five different approaches to the right response. This method would provide the students the ability to think for themselves while learning from each other during group discussion. Additionally, the