ABSTRACT
Born in the industrial age, American public education operated like a factory in its early years. That it still often works this way makes a certain sense in organizational terms, considering the financial demands of educating millions of youngsters. But as John Dewey first pointed out, this often runs counter to the very values of experiment and creativity most people say they value. This chapter examines how families become less open to subjects like art and music as they worry about kids’ future earnings or college prospects. It doesn’t help that Americans always have been suspicious of intellectual eggheads and too much book learning, especially seen in the reactionary populism of recent years. All of this puts schools in a double bind, with creativity offerings usually suffering as a consequence. This chapter combines classic thinking on creative play and learning by figures such as Gregory Bateson, Henry A. Giroux, Melanie Klein, Jean Piaget, and Donald Winnicott, with historical views of schooling by Alfie Kohn, Jonathan Kozol, and Thorstein Veblen.
