COLUMN: The Death of Creativity

Aimee Cherubini James says theAimee Cherubini James says theformal education system fails thoseAimee Cherubini James says theformal education system fails thosewho wish to pursue careers in theAimee Cherubini James says theformal education system fails thosewho wish to pursue careers in thecreative arts, and that not everyoneAimee Cherubini James says theformal education system fails thosewho wish to pursue careers in thecreative arts, and that not everyoneshould attend college. Aimee Cherubini James says theformal education system fails thosewho wish to pursue careers in thecreative arts, and that not everyoneshould attend college. Education stunts the growth of a creative mind. In society today, creative individuals, especially those without the credentials that a college diploma provides, are simply not accepted or taken seriously. From school age on, we are pushed down the same road to conformity. Throughout the years, unless you were privileged enough to attend a good Montessori school, this only worsened, until by the time you were in ninth grade there were no creative projects: the closest thing to them were analytical essays written for history and English classes. You pushed through because it is what had to be done. After all, it was what you needed to do if you hoped to get anywhere in life. No matter that where you wanted to take your life had nothing to do with sciences or maths or humanities. In order to pursue the true dream, you had to first forge through four years of bullshit, four years of paying an institution absurd amounts of money to teach you how to spit back somebody else's ideas and write papers that will not help you one bit in the future, so that society would treat you with respect. Now where are you? In a job that you hate? Or did you finally get the gall to go after that dream, now that you had the education that you so desperately needed to back you up? And here is the final, most important question: did that education, one bit of it, help you in any way attain your ultimate goal? Most likely the answer is no, but the truth of the matter is that too many of us are far too afraid to simply nix college, to say screw society and what it expects of me, and go out on a limb to strive for what is really important to us and our happiness. Because we have spent a lifetime pushing our creative thoughts aside in order follow the standard route, it seems only natural to continue to do so even once we have the opportunity to finally let those thoughts show themselves to the world. There is little room out there for the writers and thinkers, and a very lucky few are able to create a life out of art. And those lucky few are the people who were not afraid to ignore what society said about them. They had parents who were not afraid to let their children stray from the usual path and supported them. They worked as waiters and bartenders and ticket collectors until they had their foot in the door and were on the road to freedom. But to do that takes guts, and many of us would rather push through with the four years of hell rather than do something that is little understood, as well as looked down upon, by our fellow countrymen. Why do we feel this way? Because our entire lives we have been taught that there is only one way to go. In order for the writers the thinkers the painters and the singers to be fully accepted by society, school systems need to let creativity back into the curriculum. Children must be taught that there is more than one way to success, and that doing what makes them happy will make them grow into adults that are a much larger benefit to society than if they had done something because it was what was expected of them. If this happens, then there will be fewer people who are afraid to go after their dreams, fewer people suffering the frustration of choosing a major, fewer people wasting their money on an education that simply isn't necessary. Today the message is pretty clear: no college diploma = no future. And it goes even further than that for those of us who have always shown potential in the education system: no diploma from a prestigious university = worse than no future. People today seem to measure a person's worth by the name on his or her college diploma. But what exactly does that diploma do for the creative individual out there, the kid who wants to pursue writing or acting or painting? We need to teach people to chase their dreams and turn them into reality, and a large part of this is teaching them that college isn't for everybody. Sure, you can major in creative writing or fine arts, even theatre arts, and you will probably even learn something from the education, but the truth of the matter is that the education system, at all levels, fails you in the long run. In fact, if you are one of the many of us out there who wants to take your life in a direction that college just doesn't help you with, then you are probably only here because you are expected to be. Your entire life people have pushed you in this direction and planted it in your mind that it is the only way to go. Now, backing out would mean failure and let down for yourself and your family. You are a victim of the education systems biggest disaster: the death of creativity.

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