Is the current education system designed to prevent people from being independent and creative?

Answer 1

Absolutely! Schools now are dictated by the government, which are only concerned with test scores. Therefore, schools only "teach to the test" which only teaches them what to do, not how or why.

"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think." - Margaret Mead

Answer 2

I just went through a freeze dried fully accredited teaching class. The answer is that we are currently making a transition from the assembly line type of teaching before that snuffed out independence and creativity to more of a coaching thing where we hand you the puzzle pieces, tell you what we need, and let you do it the best you can.
We still have to have a common base to judge if you mastered the concepts correctly, but we want you to fit the pieced together independently and creatively.
What you must be experiencing is holdover from old school teaching methods.

Answer 3

I don't think that it is designed to prevent people from being independent. I teach high school and independence along with responsibility and accountability are themes that I preach all year longl

I do think that the system may prevent or stifle an individual's uniqueness or creativity. I don't think it is done to a significant extent and I'm not even sure that it is done deliberately.
I just think it is a way of meeting the status quo (conformity).

Answer 4

I believe it is according to how each teacher approaches her subject or if the school district will allow indiviualism. Most do but sometimes teachers get in a rut or get tired from having to discipline all day and so they take the most direct way to teach instead of allowing creativity. The gifted classes are better suited for individualism and creativity with smaller classes and those with higher intelligence and skills being involved. In a regular class it is hard to take that route with so many different levels of students.

Answer 5

As a teacher, I can tell you that my school does not teach to the test. We teach to help the children grow and learn. Yes, we do have to keep an eye on that test, and make sure that our students are more than ready for it. Actually the best test preparation is not to teach facts and figures, but to instead teach the critical thinking and analytic thinking to the students. My school is not one in a million, there are a ton of schools just like it. Don't knock the education system, try to do your part to support it and get better laws past!!! In case you haven't noticed, the teachers that everyone criticize never have ANY say in the laws, rules and regulations!!

Answer 6

Definitely -- having watched the way my two children were learning -- I can say that Independence and Creativity were lost due to the overwhelming presence of the instructors to TEACH to TEST -- in other words -- Teaching the TEST and not the analytic skills necessary to foster independent thought and creativity (like when I graduated High School and College so many decades ago).

Answer 7

The current education system is not designed to do anything but get you through the tests. You will be well into college before you actually learn anything useful. Former teachers here.

Answer 8

Since I have to give my studnets a test that determines funding for the following year---we have changed our curriculum to be so skills based it makes me bored. I teach 1st graders and the feds and the state demand that I teach 2.5 hours of UNINTERRUPTED language arts instruction per day. Plus, they won't let us do small group guided reading that i know works because that is how I teach my students to read simply because the language arts series the district chose and we must work exclusively from doesnt' have that kind of small group guided reading component--therefore I cannot teach it. What I must teach is dull and boring and I must not deviate from that format under any circumstances. I can't even deviate in the way I present the material even if I know that another way is more effective. All because a group of textbook editors decided on what was important and the correct way to teach it. Cookie cutter ways of presenting and teaching curriculum don't work--but that is what is happening in schools--and it is sad.

Answer 9

No. Independent and creative teachers will always find a way to foster individual growth while still meeting standards for state assessments.

Answer 10

no it isnt. it is designed to create an enviroment in which everyone has the opportunity to learn. conformity is a way to control interruptions in a classroom.
it is the arts in which individualism is allowed to blossom. it is the student council, paper, yearbook, and cheerleading that creative independent and group or some may say team thinking is uttilized

Answer 11

It used to be that way. As a current teacher I can tell you this is slowly becoming less true. Today we rely much more on manipulatives, journals and diagrams even in mathematics class. We also are seeing much more cooperative learning along with the use of much better technology.