Is The Creativity of Students Being Stifled?
Limitations on The Study and Worth of Creative Writing Programs
Students entering college are promised a well-rounded education, and for some, this promise is fulfilled. However, there are those students that do not receive the full spectrum of educational benefits. Colleges require all students to learn science and math, but creative writing is only required if a student is studying something in the writing area. To properly encourage a well-rounded education, shouldn't all students be required to take a creative writing class and hone their creative skill?
Furthermore, are colleges properly judging the merit of their creative writing programs? They are being judged on the output of published writers, but the merit of a program should be much more complicated than that.
Creative Writing as A Universal Discipline
It is important for people working outside of the creative writing discipline to be challenged. People from other disciplines (nursing, psychology, business) tend to look at creative writing courses as a burden or with fear because it is foreign to them.
No one is ever required to take a writing class if it is outside their discipline. This is a mistake because people go through their lives being afraid of, resenting or just not understanding the creative writing world. People need to be challenged to fully understand the field.
Writing students have to take math and science classes, and after having taken the classes, they may be interested in the fields and use that knowledge in their lives. Such a course can have several applications, an author can go on to write a series of novels about a math crazed private eye for example. Perhaps a creative perspective of mathematics would help the mathematician to solve problems or perhaps help the math teacher to relate to creative minded students in order to help them better understand the concepts.
If people outside of the writing discipline have to take a writing class, they will realize it isn’t a cake walk and may come out of it with some sort of writing appreciation. Experiencing writing is as necessary as any other core requirement.
Talent of Writing Students
While it is important for “talented” writers to be a part of creative writing programs, it is equally as important for the “less talented” to also be a part of creative writing programs.
Talent as a concept is very loosely defined because so many factors go into being talented. It is very closed minded of creative writing programs to limit their programs to those with “talent” because” talent” isn’t something that can be labeled easily. Phenomenal writers sometimes never are published and horrible writers are published, so it is a slippery slope to actually judge talent.
Passion and appreciation are factors that should be considered in this dilemma as well. Ostram [Colors of A Different Horse] speaks of the stuffy creative writing world and of college professors that teach creative writing for the income and not the rewards of teaching or the concern for future generations of writers. If this hurdle is overcome, then shouldn’t those wanting to teach creative writing also be educated? One does not have to be talented as a writer to recognize talent and discern the good from the bad.
The Merit Of Creative Writing Programs
Writing programs should place some sort of esteem on the number of published writers they produce because it is quite an accomplishment and a point of pride to have their past pupils be published. This is not, however, the only way to measure a program’s worth.
If a program is going to be measured based upon publication, then base the program not only on publication but also on job placement in the field of study. A writer does not have to be published to be successful in the creative writing world. Writing professors, copywriters, teachers and editors should also be recognized for their accomplishments.
The merit of a program's staff should also be considered. If the professors have been published, this should count. If the professors have been encouraging and inspirational to the students, this should also be taken into consideration when judging the worth of a program.
To be published is just as esteemed a profession as to educate future generations of potentially publishable writers. A program can be measured by the amount of published writers it produces, but that is not the only factor that should contribute to the worth of a creative writing program.
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