Should creative subjects be an important part of the school curriculum?R32;

I really appreaciate your opinion! Thank you for sharing it with me. Still I have a number of arguments to back up my initial statement. First of all, I want you to think it over carefully. I'm of the opinion that probably you are confusing two different notions: imagination and creativity. Being imaginative doesn't mean being creative, to my mind. If you can think abstract and you have some tremendous ideas in your head, then you are imaginative. If you know how to implement your ideas into real life, how to demostrate their social worth, you are not only imaginative, but creative! Creativity is not about just being extraordinary, it's the ability to think independently, not merely use the ideas and experience of your ancestors. It's the ability to make your own way through this life while giving somethig new to the society. For this reason, I am iclined to believe (and, by the way, there has been conducted a lot of research) that we are all naturally creative. The problem is as we grow up, we learn to be uncreative. It's a skill that can be developed as well as a process that can be managed. Creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a way of thinking. You can learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination (!) and synthesing information. I can even compare learning to be creative with learning a sport. From one side, it requires practice to be developed, from the other side, it needs a supportive environment to flourish. Creativity as an ability of coming up with innovative ideas is not a mere function of our mind. According to some scientists we need at least five behaviours, so that our brain could be optimised for these innovations. These are observing, questioning, networking, associating and experimenting. In my opinion, modern schools do not provide children with all of them. If you don't have creative subjects on your curriculum, how would you develop associating and experimenting skils? Consequently, if you have such subjects, you practice using these five discovery skills every day and, thus, develop your skills in innovation and creativity. You have said it's more reasonable to have creative subjects as after-school programmes. Some students are up to their ears with what you call 'academic' subjects and they cannot allocate their time for extra-curricular activities. Moreover, when they are small, they often don't realise that they need creative skills and for this reason don't want to have extra lessons in anything. So how can they develop their critical thinking being almost grown-ups if they haven't been developing it in their childhood. That's why I strongly believe we should teach creativity to children from an early age. Another quite convincing argument, I suppose, is that nowadays it is the generalist approach that dominates the educational sector. So we learn many different disciplines making ourselves jacks-of-all-trades, not experts. We have some knowledge in various spheres, we are well-rounded people, but we are not necessarily knowledgeable. There is a probability that most people who try to capture everything will never become experts in their particular areas. The question is: why do we prefer to have a bunch of 'academic' subjects (most of which we will never need in our future, both personal and professional, life) instead of creative disciplines? Do you think art, drama, music and dance are worth less than, for instance, social studies, physics or geography? From my own experience I can say that i have had many scientific subjects at school, but at the moment I hardly remember even half of the information acquired. The thing I know for sure is that I regret not having enough chances and time to develop my critical thinking and creativity. One more convincing point in favour of creativity is the following paradox. Why do we take into account that some students are not so able when it comes to creative subjects and we say that it can take a toll on students' academic performance and GPA, but we don't want to pay attention to the fact that some students are not so good at maths, chemistry or history (and it can also affect their GPA)? Furthermore, we don't take into consideration individual peculiarities such as ability to crunch a great deal of tedious information, logical thinking, memory capacity. Finally, about the relevance of creativity in our real life. I believe that everyone wants to be a success in their life. For me, success is directly connected with creativity. All of our most prolific inventions and scientific breakthroughs have come via the creative process. Without creativity we would be nowhere near where we are today. You cannot invent anything new if you are not able to think independently and come up with your own ideas. Creativity is one of the best foundations for learning and growing. It is very important for development, for it benefits culture over the long run. Without creativity, there would never be new forms of art, architecture, literature, music, and innovations in technology. Culture itself would remain stagnant, merely regurgitating the same things over and over again without anything new or exciting being brought to the table. How else are people going to invent something new that will benefit society if they are not creative? Schools these days want students to conform to standardized tests that make them hate school, and are washing away students who could make a difference in society. That is why I strongly believe only those people who think outside the box can change the world! Thank you again for expressing your point of view, it is a most imteresting answer!