At NCSS (Northwoods Community Secondary School), spring is on its way and issues like cabin fever run rampant. Nevertheless, students are still finding ways to keep the creativity flowing by tying our scope and sequence to unique projects such as creative videos, poetry and other mediums.

NCSS students create their own projects that revolve around their interests, and some of these projects allow students to express themselves through the outlets they create. While the flexibility allowed in NCSS is not seen in all schools across the board, Neil Rumney, an advisor at NCSS, stated, “Imagination is squashed at an early age; let children dream and create. Let them be divergent thinkers and blaze their own trail in the world. Only then will America become leaders of innovation.”

Creativity is truly a source of innovation. However, why are we not making the arts a mandatory part of high school graduation? Possibly, due to it not being nurtured in the early stages of school, or maybe it’s the eternal fear of being wrong, probably because it is so ingrained in our minds to be perfect. Children are shown this behavior repeatedly.

Schools grade the arts. It is not based on what the individual sees with his or her art. It is a person who judges the piece. Often, this creates a pass/fail reaction that the individual will receive. It just drowns creativity out. The student is not allowed to struggle and learn with experience. After awhile, it becomes a reaction to try to please with repeated behavior. Then, the individual becomes a creativity sheep with not one individual thought left.

Creativity leads to innovation. It is the foundation for innovation. Innovation is improvement. We can always improve it to lead to actual careers. Careers such as engineers, artists, writers, directors, inventors, chefs, musicians, scientists, web designers, researchers and more instead of catering to the world of doctors and lawyers. Why are the schools not acknowledging these careers and fields?