As both a parent and an educator, some of my most memorable moments with children have been the ones filled with spontaneity, fun, tons of messiness and, most of all, creativity. The idea of learning through experimentation and “out of the box” ideas is a fundamental part of growing up, particularly growing up American. Images of Benjamin Franklin tying a key on the bottom of a kite to test the properties of lightning, or the Wright brothers pushing the limits of gravity and motion, or Thomas Edison building a telegraph out of scrap metal are not just the stories of great inventors, but the folktales of our childhoods. They taught us to aspire, to use our brains in ways that made the impossible possible.
What Benjamin Franklin, the Wright brothers, and Thomas Edison all had in common is experimentation and creativity—highly motivating and natural parts of learning. Today, I worry that the natural impulse to experiment till you get something right, to let your creativity flourish in pursuit of goals large and small, to think differently and expansively whatever the subject—are ideals and habits of learning that are not being cultivated and encouraged in enough of our children, and, instead, are being replaced by a much bleaker and narrower idea of how to think and how to dream.
It should come as no surprise that, as the education reform movement in the United States continues to focus exhaustively on standardized testing as the measure of student achievement, creativity and innovation in our children’s lives are fading into the background. In classrooms all over New York City and across the country, students are being taught to learn that everything in their educational world has a right and a wrong answer. They are being taught how to pass examinations, and teachers are being incentivized to make sure that they do. In such classrooms, the impossible remains impossible and any discussion otherwise is a waste of time. This measure of a successful education, if it continues, will snuff out innovation, impacting the long-term success of our students far more than subpar test scores do.
If a budget is in fact a value statement, then it’s clear that we value less and less the development of well-rounded students.
In New York City alone, with the elimination of a dedicated arts education funding line, one of the subject areas where students are taught to be creative, expressive, and experimental has been reduced significantly over the last four years. In fact, according to an analysis done by the Center for Arts Education, there has been a 35 percent decline in funding for arts education services that partner with and bring services to our schools, and over the last four years, there has been an almost 80 percent decrease in funding for the essential tools for creative learning, including supplies and equipment.
While increasing student performance through testing and creating standardized benchmarks for all students to achieve can be worthy components of education reform, the message being sent by the intense focus on standardized testing is permeating every aspect of our educational system. In New Hampshire, for example, schools are hanging signs on classroom walls with tips for students to raise their test scores. What happened to the pictures of Benjamin Franklin and the Wright brothers?
The drive to do what no one has done before, the resilience to succeed against all odds, the creativity to envision the new frontier hidden to most—these are the golden clichés on which so much of our culture and our economy has been built. They are also our secret sauce. They are our true edge in a global world.
Ironically, while the education reform movement in this country seems to be moving full speed ahead with testing as the means of increasing global competitiveness, the highest academically performing countries in the world are moving in the exact opposite direction. In fact, South Korea, which according to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranks first worldwide for math and reading and third in science, is aggressively moving to incorporate experimentation, innovation, and project-based learning into their curriculum.
In 2009, I began working with education leaders in South Korea who wanted to bring the Mandell School’s model of project-based learning methods to Asia, and, a year later in 2010, Mandell Kids, the first American pre-school in Korea, opened in Seoul. The results have been astonishing, and the demand for more Mandell schools in South Korea is only growing among educators, parents, and students.
To put it more plainly, while the education reform movement in the United States is pushing aside the secret sauce of educational success, countries that are already outperforming our students are seeking it out.
While I am excited for the exportation of the Mandell model overseas, as a mother of two small American boys, I also find it terrifying that our kind of model for learning is becoming less and less available here at home. Why? Because when you and I are gone and our children are left to manage the world we’ve left them, they are going to have some pretty big problems to solve, far bigger than anything that might have a right or wrong answer.
When I think about what I want for my boys, I always return to those simple yet compelling folktales. I want their educational lives to be spontaneous; I want them to have fun and to get messy, and, above all, I want them to be creative in their thinking, industrious in their habits, and buoyed by the confidence that they could be the next Benjamin Franklin—or, better yet, Steve Jobs.
Gabriella Rowe is the third generation Head of School of the Mandell School and a mom of two sons. She blogs on education and parenting issues on New York Family’s Parenting In Progress blog.
