Inventiveness

As educators, it is one of our tasks to constantly bring out the best in each and every one of our students. Often, this entails eliciting a single, correct response. As John W. Santrock states in "Educational Psychology" (Chapter Nine), "schools spend too much time on getting students to give a single correct response in an imitative way rather than encouraging students to expand their thinking bu coming up with ideas and rethinking earlier conclusions." The inventiveness of a student is undermined by the task to find the correct answer the teacher has in mind.

To be completely honest, I was in the mindset that there was only one correct answer and that what the teacher taught me was the truth. It was not until I arrived at college that I truly began to "think" in the fullest sense of the term. As much as I hate to admit it, Common Ground requirement Paideia I showed me how to think. The make up of the course I was in (with one of the best teachers I have ever had, might I add) was tailored to finding alternative responses, or even taking a side of an argument that there really was no answer to. Once I bought into the idea that there was "no correct answer," I was able to cut my creative reigns and really think in a fulfilling way. As a future educator, I believe that it is one of the most important things I wll do is to cut the reigns that we hold so tightly onto students with and let them take control and let them arrive at their own answers--even if it is not the way we see it.

It was philosopher Fredrich Nietchze who said that truths are just illusions we have forgotten are illusions in a more eloquent way. This speaks to what educators do every day. We teach things that basely we believe are truths. There can be science behind it, faith behind it, personal experience behind it. But underneath all of this, educators need to remain cognisant of the fact that all we are teaching is the current standardization of things we hold to be true. We need to remain open to other viewpoints that students express in the classroom, as well as present research of different approaches and "holdings of truths" to our students to expose them to ideas outside their realm of reality and help them think in such a way. It is important that we develop classrooms where creativity is encouraged and embraced, as well as create an environment where mistakes are equally encouraged and embraced in pursuit of the truth.

In a society where the "standard of education" is not working in comparison with other nations, it should be our number one goal to create innovative thinkers for the twenty first century. Regardless of how our nation's students stack up against other nations, if they can hold their own in innovation, then we truly have nothing to worry about. Innovation comes in science, in medicine, in music, in art, in politics, in all realms of life. All this innovation definitely cannot hurt our economy if innovative marketing is employed. There also needs to be a link between high achievement and innovation, but if creativeness is encouraged from the onset, then achievement will skyrocket as a consequence. In the midst of economic uncertainly, education needs to our investment instead of "Cash for Clunkers" or corporate salvages and stimulus packages. By investing in upcoming generation's creativity (instead of making sure they are not "left behind") we can look towards a better national life and personal self-fulfillment.