Creativity and Curiosity: My Thoughts-special post 12A

I am a firm believer that schools in the United States do destroy(or inhibit) the development of curiosity and/or creativity in students. Students are taught to learn things by memorizing them and normally when they are taught this way, they usually don't remember the things they are taught. Many students are taught that mistakes are bad. Some mistakes can be bad, but only if you don't learn from them. Schools destroy the development of curiosity by not having teachers that are interested in actually teaching the children. Many students have questions for the teachers, but don't ask because they know that the teacher won't answer them. This mindset is what destroys the curiosity and creativity of many students. I think that a curriculum can be developed that will increase the curiosity of students. One of the things that I would suggest doing is having each student in the class to write down a list of things that interest them at the beginning of the year. Divide students that have things in common up into groups and allow them to work on a project together. I would also try to set the lesson plan up around one item of interest per week at least. That way students would think for themselves and be creative in their projects. They could pretty much do their own things without having much guidance besides their own brains. The curiosity and creativity would both be triggered with this type of lesson plan. A teacher's actions can definitely determine the creativity and curiosity of students. If a teacher doesn't encourage curiosity, then the students won't be creative. It's as simple as that. Students need to be molded, and many teachers aren't interested in that. I think that how a teacher responds to the student will determine how creative/curious students are. If they have a negative reaction, then chances are, that student won't ask anymore questions for fear of looking like an idiot when the teacher isn't encouraging or enthusiastic about their question. So if teachers are more active in the students learning skills, active in their questions, and resilient in answering them, then the students will more than likely have an increase in creativity and curiosity. What would help me be more creative or curious really just depends on the subject. If I am interested in something, then I look up facts and read as many articles on that subject as I can. It's borderline obsessive. So it really has to be something that interests me. Teachers and schools have a major role in this because if they don't encourage my creativity or give me something to be curious about, then I will never learn anything.