In Wantagh, there are tons of creative minds that are capable of making something extraordinary, or maybe some students already have. Whether the creative aspect is writing, drawing, painting, designing, sewing, or something even more abstract, students range all along the creative spectrum. Or do they?
According to a Forbes article written by Robyn D. Shulman, creativity decreases by at least 86% in the jump from age five to age 15. But is that really true? If so, what causes it? A common answer among students and some adults would be school, if that’s so, what about school is draining creativity from students? An even bigger question, with the rise of AI, will student’s creativity continue to decrease?
Before being able to answer these questions, we must first define what creativity is. According to Oxford Languages, creativity is defined as “the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.” If we go by that definition, practically anything you do can be considered creative, such as your choice of clothing, hairstyles, even the analysis of that evidence you used for your homework.
So let us assume for a second that creativity in students has decreased, would school be the problem? A lot of mixed responses were recorded, for example Mrs.Gompers, a child development teacher in Wantagh High School states “Yes and No. I think that it depends on the teacher you have… But I also think it’s hard for teachers to come up with these lessons when a lot of the teachers are trying to squeeze in as much material as they can in order to get it done for them to move on to the next thing…” While a twelfth grader in Wantagh, Dean Armstrong says “Um, yes I do. Because certain writing assignments, like, you know, they require you to stick to a certain topic… I think one exception, though, would be our college essay[s]” What both of these questions have in common is that sticking to the script of every lesson kills creativity, but with all the creative classes that Wantagh has to offer, is it really the school or is it the student?
According to Mr. Hunter, an art teacher for several different creative classes in Wantagh High School, “It’s a sliding scale, I would say. I have some students who can come up with ideas on their own, and they’re very creative, and they don’t need much inspiration. Whereas other students might benefit from seeing visuals or being given ideas or being prompted with questions.” If that is the case, then maybe it’s the students themselves that are barring their own creativity, after all, most schools in suburbs like Wantagh offer lots of different creative classes for students to pick from. The question now is, what is really stopping students from being creative?
If there is one thing that most individuals interviewed agreed on, it’s that younger grades (elementary and middle school) are more creative than the older grades. Hailey O’Brien responded to this by saying, “Yeah, just because I feel like, I was like I didn’t really care much. Now I feel like I care more.” So is that the problem? Is it the fact that the social pyramid starts to weigh down on us so much in high school that we lose the sense to create?
If that’s the case, then in order to be creative, students need to stop caring as much about what others think and focus on what makes them happy. This is probably why as a person matures into an adult their creativity sparks again in balance with social pressures. As for AI, we’re all still new to the situation to know what effect it will have on creativity- but if there are still people who are willing to create something original with their own minds and skills, then creativity will always exist.