Schools Promote "correctness" over "creativity"

"Are you sure you want to go there?" was the first question I was asked when I suggested to my teacher that we include a homosexual character in our play. Of course, I fully understood her reasons for asking the question. It was simply far too flamboyant to include such a character, and how would parents react? It was simply incorrect.


Incorrectness. It seems to be the only issue that steers us away from any particular from of expression. One example would be how when a teacher decides that instead of a slide show-based lesson , he would conduct the lesson in the style of an open discussion. However, is the discussion really 'open'? Mostly of the time, that is not the case. The teacher definitely has a lesson objective in mind, and if the students start to steer away from the topic, he is obliged to simply steer them back to the right direction. This shows that any display of creativity is always confined to the boundaries of 'correctness'.


Some may claim that there is nothing wrong with such a attitude.In fact, correctness has been promoted over creativity so many time before its become a tradition. Doing so would result in students thinking in a very linear fashion; as adults they would have a very limited worldview. In this day and age, a flexible perspective is the key to understanding the complex intricacies of world events, it is very important that we are able to instill students with an ability to look at issues with different mindsets. How do we do that?


Teachers could enter classrooms not with lesson objectives, but with the goal of wielding students with the ability to think creatively instead of in a linear fashion. Facts that are taught could just come from the teacher's and students' general knowledge, and the discerning of the facts could be another channel for learning. In so doing, students would not look at issues and action base on how politically 'correct' they are, but based on their intrinsic value.


In conclusion, we must not promote "correctness" over creativity since it would nurture students with a linear-world view, instead of an open perspective which is necessary in our modern world. To do so, we must encourage creativity and appreciation for the complexities of the problems facing the future in our classrooms and all forms of teaching, and thus create true global citizens, not xenophobes.