I can certainly attest to this as my school, which is an arts charter high school, has had to focus highly on the NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) and now the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) tests. In an attempt to keep up with heightened expectations of standards, at one point we tried to inject our curricula with math and English on a level that seemed forced. Why? There are things that, as a community, we can implement to aid in the prevention of stifled creativity for tests’ sake. One method is putting constructive technology in the hands of the young. Though she may be a child prodigy, Adora Svitak in her 2010 TED Talk calls for more child-like thinking. She states points that illustrate the freedom of a child-like thought process. Lacking inhibitions of limitations, children think along lines of possible ideas and ideals as opposed to the impossible having to be conquered. This process allowed her to do amazing feats of writing for her age. Is it possible that we are telling our children, “You can’t at your age,” only because we didn’t?


Take for example a lesson in which students age fourteen are given the freedom to allow their imaginations to take over the work that they can do. Adults are on hand to provide the necessary skills and safety for the project, not interfering in the creative process. What do you think could be accomplished? The possibilities are endless, of course, but if we were to tell the children that they can work in any medium, any size and let out a dream, would we do it? It means a lot of footwork on the part of the teacher, it also requires a knowledge of a good many materials with which to build/create. But it is feasible. This is not a craft project, this is an artwork. Deep in levels of thought, meticulously planned and conceived with the help of experts to put these pieces together. Look around the house.


The pieces are from your homes, your community, gathered in a hunt for the perception of truth and imagination about the objects. Each item has a story, a history and it is injected into the work of this young person. The shared knowledge between colleagues in the schools facilitates the creation of such things. Kinetic sculptures, installations of three-dimensional art that inspire and provoke thought, assembled as the art itself, as a backdrop to a performance, the subject of a painting or sculpture. They are engineered with math and science, socially conscious statements about the world in which the students live. The pieces need written explanations as gallery plaques for the audience to grasp the full experience and intention of the artists.


This level of creativity and freedom of expression is what every student should be allowed. It is a statement of discovery, a statement of self in relation to the world that is a very adult work based on the thoughts and imaginings of a child. Truly the transition of adolescence can be approached and better understood in a provocative installation/drawing/painting/sculpture/performance made from the items that are physically in this child’s life. This creative endeavor and experience will reach the goals of understanding further than cramming a child’s head with facts in order to pass a test, after which the knowledge remains solely upon the page, confined and limited.


Rogue Island, 65 Weybosset St., Providence References


Salles, A. (2014). NOvA experiment sees first long distance neutrinos Fermilab U.S. Department of Energy. Official site Retrieved from http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/ press_releases/2014/NOvA-20140211.html Milbrandt, M., & Milbrandt, L. (2011). Creativity: What are we talking about? Art Education, 64(1), 8-13. Freedman, K. (2007). Artmaking/Troublemaking: Creativity, policy, and leadership in art education. Studies in Art Education, 48(2), 204-217 Svitak, A. (2010). What adults can learn from kids. TED Talks Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak?language=en#t-102976


Vol. 3 Issue 1 | 23


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