唐若曦英语演讲稿

Why does school kills children’s creativity？

山东省昌乐二中 高三21班 唐若曦

Hello,everyone.thank you for sparing your time to listen to me today.The topic of my presentation is whether school kills creativity.And I say yes.My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as knowledge, and we should protect students’ creativity.To demonstrate this point,I have divided my talk into three parts.

Firstly,I think children’s curiosity is challenged during school days. Preschool children ask about 100 questions per day. We take it for granted ,but most parents may get annoyed and ask them to stop questioning.Unfortunately, if you ask them to stop,they will indeed stop.And after entering school, they ask less and less,until they will ask no more.And I’m afraid it’s when children’s creativity is killed.

We all know a story of Watt inventing steam engine.When Watt was a young child,he noticed a common sight, but he found it was strange. young Watt was very eager to konw what was pushing the kettle’s lip up.At first he questioned his grandma,but his grandma had no interest in it and asked him to stop questioning. We all know that as a child, Watt didin’t give up .But I can’t help imagining, how many children on earth can act exactly like Watt? Most kids may stop being curious after their parents’ or teachers’ impatience. I said that because I’ve experienced these kind of things many times in flesh. I coud well remember once I asked my math teacher a question, but he couldn’t explain it. And he said this:

because it is said in the book. No more questions, no more nonsense. I felt upset,and from that time on, I didn’t ask those “useless” questions anymore. What’s more, I have to deal with my lesson grades, which is more vital. What a pity, I shoud have had the chance to become Watt some day.

Secondly,at school teachers don’t want students to make mistakes. They want you to act in thier ways, so creativity is faded. When I was in senior two we were supposed to write argumentation. We memorize model essays as well as study writing templates. If you do your essay in a model way your mark is high, but if not, you may even recieve a falling grade. I think to some degrees our creativity is being limited. After all, I can’t see the best student at writing high-mark argumentation will become a talented writer. It’s difficult, right?

Theoretically, although each teacher prefer a creative student from heart,in the real world,creativity is a complexed conception. What’s more,it always shows up as distraction,daydream or disobeying rules. In other words,the most creative child often shows up as a trouble maker. But as so-called trouble makers they are often scolded at by adults instead of being inspired.

The last point I want to say is studying at school sets a limit to our integrated development. Over ten years we study mathmatics, science and language in the school. Art and music are normally given a lower status in school. I think it may because we all know we should learn subjects which are the most useful for finding jobs. Am I right? I know many people who have a gift at dancing, singing or performing. Though I think they are very brilliant, they don’t think so. Because

what they are good at school isn’t valued,or actually stigmatized. I think math is very important, but so is arts. Picasso once said this. He said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. Speaking of which, I’m thinking what would happen to HanHan if he hadn’t dropped out of school? I can’t imagine a creative writer sitting in the class, trying to work out a math question and well behaving himself. To tell the truth, his low grades really couldn’t afford him to study math further. Anyway, it shows that HanHan isn’t a intellectual, he’s a writer. And he’s talented and creative.

Creativity is not a thing that can be taught,but it’s a thing that can be killed. There is some difference in creativity between Asian countries and America, It’s not because American schools teach better creativity, it’s because in American schools, students’ creativity suffers less.

Of cause,creativity isn’t everything,we still need systematic and rigorous education which is essential for success. But we shouldn’t limit this kind of study to some subjects. And school should pay attention to all students, because every person has various creative potential and talent. Every one has their own thinking feature.

Thank you for listening.