Loss of Creativity in Our Schools

What has become of creativity in our schools?! I consider myself a well educated person due to the opportunities I had as a child to increase my knowledge during my school years. Now we are so focused on the outcome of the standardized tests that we have lost all sight to what education is all about. There is no or very little creativity in our schools.

My son has just entered his third and final year of Middle School (Junior High). In the sixth grade his only extracurricular class was gym. Since then, he has been placed in the basic reading, language arts, science, and math. His only other two classes were computer courses that worked solely on enhancing his basic skills. There was no break for any cerebral growth.

His middle school had one purpose only last year, and that was to increase from a "B" school to an "A" school in order for the government to supply them with a larger amount of funding. In the meantime, our children are missing out on a true education.

Last year my son tested "only" twelve points above the "norm" in math and three points below the "norm" in reading. He is now labeled as a "bubble" kid which has made it impossible for him to take either band or drafting which he very much wants to experience. Unfortunately, other than home schooling, there are no other options for my son where we live because we are limited to one middle school and one high school in our area.

Personally, I don't give a hoot about what grade the school makes because it's not about the administration, it's about the students. Is there really any wonder why our dropout rate is rapidly climbing? We need to broaden the choices these children have for their future, not be so quick to punish them and basically label them as failures. The failures are not our children; the failures are the adults who are more concerned with their raises and bonus' than to allow these children growth!

And what is the "norm" exactly? And who makes the decisions of what the "norm" is? We are all different and we all come from different backgrounds. I was fortunate enough to come from a well educated background not only of the basics, but of art, music, and an understanding of cultural differences. However, I am "normal" in my own right. My daughter is developmentally delayed and is a fifteen year old who functions at a five year old level; however, she is "normal" in her own right. My children lost their natural father when they were one and three years old and were raised in a single parent home, yet that was a "normal" upbringing for them.

We need to let go of the terminology we use and the labels we place on our children. We need to give them more opportunity, more chances, and in return more growth in order for them to become better people as adults. We need to stop punishing them for their weaknesses and start complimenting them for their strengths and accomplishments. School must be a place for them to learn, not a place to burn them out and teach them to give up.