Stephen Roper

    I HAVE harped on the absence of creativity in the Chinese classroom for a while now and I think it’s time to explain why it’s so critical to a well-rounded education.

    Spontaneity: Fun fact — after just one class I’ll know every answer students will give to every one of my questions. I ask a class “Who’s your favorite basketball player?” and I get everyone from Lebron to Kobe to Steve Nash. Different, right? Wrong. Ask them the most important question of all — “Why is he your favorite?” — and the answers are almost always the same: he’s powerful, he’s fun to watch, or — my personal favorite — he’s handsome. It’s a variation of those three answers every time. There will be the occasional student that articulates a unique response, but class after class, student after student, the same questions are met with the same answers.

    Take this trend beyond my students’ Oral English class and instead put it in the realm of a job interview. I’m a boss looking to hire a bright new mind for my business and every candidate gives the same answers, much like my students. The one that sticks out, that has the ability to be spontaneous and think on their feet, might not be the most qualified but they’re the one I’ll remember because they were the most engaging and unique.

    Independent thinking: There’s a dependence in students to be told what to do and how to do it. I learned very quickly that my students relied heavily on instructions — if left to their own devices they’d fret over doing their tasks “correctly,” then be so worried about being wrong that they wouldn’t even try.

    Obviously, that’s a problem. Why?

    The movie “The Social Network” has a great line that summarizes the value of independent thinking: “People at Harvard don’t look to find a job, they look to create their own job.” Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google… These brands and many more were built by minds that thought outside the box. Instead of following the well-worn career path everyone else took, independent thinkers made their own rules and created their own success.

    My students have the same potential, i.e. to create world-changing brands and products, but they’re limited by an inability to think on their own, to forge a path that has no rules or instructions.

    Art/Expression: I know my students like to write, paint, sing, and engage in other creative endeavors. And I know some of them are really, really good. But here’s the thing: their talents, these creative pursuits of theirs, often fall by the wayside as their focus shifts to the rigors of memorizing facts from books for tests.

    Not every kid will be a novelist or famous musician, but not every kid will be a scientist or doctor either. The curriculum is too rigid to allow those with an affinity for art or music or writing to really explore and, for some, it’s a shame because that would or could be their livelihood.

    (The author is a former U.S. journalist who is teaching English in Shenzhen.)