Members Cora Greenawald

Nov 4 2009: Tiberiu Tesileanu, Creativity and literacy are intertwined! Its not so much one thing built atop the other--they need each other mutually.The ability to really understand something in a deep and complex way requires creativity. Encouraging creativity will not harm basic skills learning, it will strengthen it.
I don't think the issue is as divisive as you'd like it to be. You admit that creativity is something worth fostering. Where's the conflict?

Nov 1 2009: Ken's message is refreshing and inspiring. This is a good argument to counter those that believe that creativity is a frivolous extra that doesn't deserve a place in the classroom.

When I was in school I was funneled into the "gifted" program in our system. For a brief moment each week we were allowed to be creative thinkers. Then it was back to the "mainstream" classroom where anything outside the box was wrong, wrong, wrong. I loved science, math, art and literature, but I hated school.

I think that standardized education as we know it today is limiting our collective potential. Rote memorization is only effective for some concepts and should not be universally applied to everything. It is time to integrate high level thinking and creativity into everything we teach.