Schools should not teach creativity skills
In ‘The Limits of Creativity in Education: Dilemmas for the Educator,’ Anna Craft says that “partly in response to the global environment, many nation-states reconstructed their education systems (Woods et al., 1997).” The objective was to secure “higher employment and maintain economic performance” (p. 115). This is a questionable assertion when the needs of the community are seen through the glasses of the global recession in 2008. Higher employment in the United States was replaced with service sector jobs.
Even before this, Boston touted its success with the fact that it had a strong economic recovery and by the year 2000, “Boston has completed its shift to a service based economy.” It still had fewer jobs in blue collar work, and some of the services were labeled as “professional,” but the report on Leadership through Innovation: The History of Boston’s Economy goes on to say that “tourism has emerged as a cornerstone of the city's economy, strengthening the hotel, retail, cultural, and restaurant industries.” These industries and those in the service sector are notoriously low paying, with those who work for tips often making well below minimum wage.
Creativity may be called for, but people who are working at minimum wage in service sector jobs won’t have time or energy to be creative. In fact, according to USA Today, there is no place in the United States that a person working one minimum wage job can afford housing at the recommended rent to income level. “Minimum-wage employees must work on average 2.6 full-time jobs to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment in the USA without paying more than 30% of their income” (2014). So the assumption that “higher employment” is a goal of education reform is highly suspect. Creating employees that expect higher wage jobs only to find that they will be working in a café or hotel does nothing good for the economy, for the people or for the community.
While Craft does a good job with asking the reader to question assumptions about creativity, she never addresses what exactly education is supposed to do. The answer to this essential question makes coming up with what should be taught in schools easy to come up with. If schools are meant to produce good workers that uphold the current system, then creativity should not be taught in schools because as Craft notes, “fostering children’s creativity could also lead to challenges to the status quo” (p.123).
Even before this, Boston touted its success with the fact that it had a strong economic recovery and by the year 2000, “Boston has completed its shift to a service based economy.” It still had fewer jobs in blue collar work, and some of the services were labeled as “professional,” but the report on Leadership through Innovation: The History of Boston’s Economy goes on to say that “tourism has emerged as a cornerstone of the city's economy, strengthening the hotel, retail, cultural, and restaurant industries.” These industries and those in the service sector are notoriously low paying, with those who work for tips often making well below minimum wage.
Creativity may be called for, but people who are working at minimum wage in service sector jobs won’t have time or energy to be creative. In fact, according to USA Today, there is no place in the United States that a person working one minimum wage job can afford housing at the recommended rent to income level. “Minimum-wage employees must work on average 2.6 full-time jobs to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment in the USA without paying more than 30% of their income” (2014). So the assumption that “higher employment” is a goal of education reform is highly suspect. Creating employees that expect higher wage jobs only to find that they will be working in a café or hotel does nothing good for the economy, for the people or for the community.
While Craft does a good job with asking the reader to question assumptions about creativity, she never addresses what exactly education is supposed to do. The answer to this essential question makes coming up with what should be taught in schools easy to come up with. If schools are meant to produce good workers that uphold the current system, then creativity should not be taught in schools because as Craft notes, “fostering children’s creativity could also lead to challenges to the status quo” (p.123).