Creativity and Misplaced Priorities

As I continue to read this book, I keep wondering what we can do to make the changes that are necessary to get our country moving in the right direction. In one part of the book, the authors mention the Race to Nowhere documentary. Thinking about this as well as one of the books we read last year, Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students by Denise Clark Pope , I cannot help but wonder whether or not the authors are right when they say the stressed out students in Race to Nowhere had "misplaced priorities".

In both Race to Nowhere and Doing School, students in schools throughout the United States were balancing school, extracurricular activities, a social life, and many other responsibilities in order to be "well-rounded". I remember feeling similar pressure when I was in high school and beginning the process of taking the SATs, applying to college, and trying to somehow stand out from all of the other students who were doing the exact same thing. After watching Race to Nowhere and reading Doing School as an adult, I did not feel bad for the featured students because I believe that in order to be successful, it is important to have a strong work ethic and the ability to balance your responsibilities. In my own high school experience, when I felt that the pressure was too much, the areas in which I cut back were my extracurricular activities. I always understood that academics come first and the rest is secondary.

After reading this book and thinking about creativity (which I have mentioned in many of my other posts), I am starting to rethink this a bit. I still agree that academics are important, but maybe cutting out the extracurriculars is not as advantageous as I thought it was when I was in high school. If so many jobs are now being eliminated and creativity or ingenuity is what sets an individual apart, maybe the idea of being "well-rounded" still has a lot of merit. While students can still learn critical thinking and creativity in the classroom, a lot of this learning can also happen through other programs like art, music, sports, etc. I just keep coming back to the idea that in our changing world, creativity is always going to have value. If a person is able to find his or her niche, or something that they do better than anyone else, that can set that person in a positive direction. But in order to find that, you have to look. Rather than thinking the students in Race to Nowhere should just cut out all of these extras and focus on school only, I am starting to think that it is all equally important. Maybe sending 27,000 texts a day is not, but trying different things and discovering your personal strengths and weaknesses is.

At this point, I still do not think this book has given me answers to my questions, nor has it provided ideas on how we can really improve education. On the other hand, I do think that the book is encouraging me to think differently, so maybe that's a good first step.