My colorfully insane best friend, a higher up in a large North Carolina state university residence program, shared this website with me, and in doing so was subversively accusing me, a public school English teacher of five years, of stifling the creativity brooding in my student's young minds. My first instinct was to say, "Hey, I was a creative teacher...I did creative...things...or at least I tried to." But the more I thought about it, my friend was right.
Many urban charter schools and urban district reform initiatives focus on structure, discipline, and classroom management as the key ingredient to create a class where real learning takes place. Thinking on my own experience, for every 10 classroom management professional development sessions I went to, I went to 1 for fostering creativity amongst my students. A sobering thought.
Don't get me wrong...there is a need for classroom management, especially in urban schools. I'm not suggesting we let creativity run rampant, letting the little kiddos go all Lord of the Flies on under the banner of 'creativity'. If a teacher can't control 30 kids in the classroom, there might not even be a chance for creativity. However, I would like to see more professional development for teachers, especially urban and rural teachers, focus on creativity in classroom and curriculum design.
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