Like everything else in North America, the North American educational system is a colonial institution that draws inspiration across various politically active decades to create the modern-day education curriculum that we entrust to prepare each generation for the future. But this institution, like most, is flawed. Flawed in a way that the public tends to overlook. While it claims to foster a child’s intelligence, subsequently, it hinders that child’s imagination, discourages their critical thinking capabilities, and create a false view of world perspective.
Our modern-day education system is killing creativity due to its emphasis on standardized testing, stigmatism on incorrect answers, and its disregard of individualism.
The North American …show more content…
It has in fact declined over the years as a necessary expenditure for academic achievement. The decline of creativity in educational settings is partly due to the deterioration of mental and physical well-being in students. Unrealistic academic expectations require students to overwork themselves to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a vast majority of American adolescents are getting less than 7 hours of sleep, disrupting their natural circadian rhythm. Sleep deprivation only aggravates the underlying issue of school-related stress that plagues students as early as elementary school. The human body reacts to stress through a process called the general adaptive syndrome. It is composed of three phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion, however when the body is exposed to stressors for prolonged periods of time, it begins to experience the negative effects of the prolonged exhaustion phase. Prolonged chronic stress disrupts the body’s natural state of homeostasis by flooding the body with stress hormones. These stress hormones can cause headaches, nausea, and insomnia. Long term effects include hypertension, suppression of the immune system, an increased risk for heart disease and strokes. The physical impacts of stress are more than enough to exhaust students, yet it is the mental impact of stress that truly suppresses their creativity. Stress can cause frustration, irritation, difficulty concentrating, and poor decision making. Long term stress can drive students towards anxiety, sadness, and depression. According to the American Psychological Association, one in three American adolescents’ experience school related depression, thus it is no surprise that adolescent suicide rates have tripled over the past 50 years. Overwhelming students with chronic stress inhibits their