Y = mx + b. Mitochondria is the power house of the cell. Introduction. Body paragraphs. Conclusion. Learn it. Regurgitate it. Forget it. Creativity does not survive in a system built on conformity.
At some point, schools stopped asking students to think and started asking them to comply. Creativity: the very thing that fuels curiosity, innovation and passion has been slowly pushed out of classrooms and replaced with formulas, rubrics and predetermined “correct” answers. The longer students remain in this system, the more they are taught that original thinking is risky, inconvenient and unnecessary. This is not preparation for the real world. It is training for obedience.
From the moment students enter school, compliance is rewarded. Color inside the lines. Follow the example. Show your work the “right” way. Answer exactly what the question is asking: nothing more, nothing less. By the time students reach high school, especially in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, creativity is no longer encouraged. It is filtered.
Learning becomes transactional. Students stop asking why and start asking will this be graded? Or is this on the test? Knowledge is reduced to points, percentages and performance. AP Psychology teacher Kaley Johnson sees the consequences of this system every day.
“The curriculum really is just memorizing terms, doing essays and multiple choice questions,” Johnson said. “There’s a time and place for that, but it eliminates the creative factor.”
That limitation does not just affect students. When curriculum is tightly scripted and paced around standardized tests, teachers often have little room to experiment or adapt lessons creatively. In classrooms built around coverage and test preparation, even educators who value creativity can feel pressured to prioritize efficiency over exploration. If teachers are confined to rigid pacing guides and predetermined outcomes, it becomes harder to model the kind of curiosity and risk taking that actually sparks creative thinking in students.
That elimination is not accidental, it is built into the structure of high school education. Standardization makes learning easier to measure, easier to justify and easier to control. But easy does not mean effective.
When creativity disappears, learning turns into survival. Students learn how to play the system instead of engaging with it.
“It kind of just feels like playing the points game,” Johnson said. “What can I do to get the number I want, rather than am I actually learning?”
Let’s stop pretending this is accidental. The system is working exactly as it was designed to, just not for students. Let’s be honest about what is driving this. At the center of it for many high schools is College Board, an organization claiming to value critical thinking while building an empire on memorization and compliance. College Board is not an educational guardian, it is a corporation. Its success is measured in volume: how many students enroll, how many exams are sold, how many scores are reported. More AP classes mean more exams. More exams mean more money. Creativity doesn’t fit neatly into that model, because it can’t be standardized, automated or mass produced.
Schools follow the same logic. High AP enrollment boosts reputation. High graduation rates boost credibility. Pushing students to take more, do more and finish faster keeps the numbers looking strong. Whether students are actually retaining knowledge, maintaining mental health or developing independent thought becomes secondary to keeping the pipeline moving.
That pipeline is reinforced in how learning is measured. Document based question (DBQ). Long essay question (LEQ). Short answer question (SAQ). Timed essays and standardized formats that are treated as proof of understanding but often reward students for following a structure rather than developing original thought. When every class asks students to demonstrate learning in the same formulaic way, creativity becomes extinct. Students learn to replicate what the rubric wants instead of exploring ideas beyond it. In an environment built on standardized proof of learning, conformity becomes the safest path and creative thinking is slowly pushed aside.
In this system, students are no longer learners; they are statistics. Pass rates. Graduation percentages. Data points used to justify the next cycle. When education prioritizes output over understanding, it stops serving students and starts using them.
AP classes are marketed as “rigorous,” but rigor has been reduced to endurance. How much can you memorize? How much stress can you tolerate? How many hoops can you jump through without questioning why they’re there in the first place?
I didn’t arrive at this conclusion from the outside. I lived it. My senior year, I was strongly encouraged repeatedly to take multiple AP courses. Not because it aligned with my interests or capacity, but because it looked good on paper. I trusted the system that told me this was what successful students do. I believed that pushing myself harder meant I was doing something right.
Instead, I burned out. I was overwhelmed, exhausted and constantly anxious. I wasn’t learning, I was surviving. By the end of the semester, I hadn’t done as well as I’d hoped. The pressure of six AP classes left me mentally drained rather than academically fulfilled. The system didn’t pause to ask how I was doing. It just moved on to the next student. Johnson sees this in the classroom every day when students are misguided to take on multiple AP classes and endure the everyday struggles that come with the workload.
“When students are taking five AP courses, they [students] learn how to jump through the hoops,” Johnson said. “And then you don’t want to take risks, you just want the grade.”
At the high school, the pressure is unmistakable. Students are consistently encouraged to take multiple AP courses, reinforcing the idea that rigor outweighs curiosity. When rigor outweighs curiosity, learning stops feeling expansive and starts feeling heavy. The pressure to perform replaces the freedom to explore. Senior Maya Grix believes this pressure affects a students’ emotional well-being
“There are so many restrictions that it starts to get taxing on students’ mental health,” Grix said.
For some students, memorization based learning feels hollow. Information is taken in for a test, released afterward and never integrated into how students think or understand the world.
“When I memorize content for a test, I forget it right after,” Grix said, “But when I’m allowed to apply what I learn, I actually remember it.”
Creativity makes learning meaningful. Without it, school becomes a cycle of pressure without purpose. One of the most damaging lessons high school teaches is that there is always one correct answer and if students don’t find it, they fail.
“Teachers are looking for a specific answer, and if you don’t give it, you’re wrong,” Grix said, “Even if your answer still makes sense.”
This mindset does not prepare students for real world problem solving. It teaches them to doubt their instincts, silence their ideas and prioritize approval over understanding.
“It made me lose passion for subjects I actually found interesting,” Grix said, “Once you lose that passion, you stop caring.”
When students stop caring, exhaustion replaces engagement.
“It fuels academic burnout,” Grix said, “ “Creativity makes learning feel safe again.”
Despite a school culture that prioritizes efficiency, standardization and measurable outcomes, creativity is often dismissed as a distraction, as if encouraging original thought somehow lowers academic standards. In reality, it does the opposite. Johnson believes meaningful learning demands more from students, not less.
“When projects are done right, students see that what they’re doing matters,” Johnson said.
Johnson described project based learning as a method that replaces passive lectures with active problem solving, giving students control over how they apply knowledge to real-world challenges.
“That’s when kids (students) get fired up,” Johnson said, “When everything connects and makes sense.”
Unlike traditional assignments that reward memorization, project based learning forces students to think creatively, work collaboratively, and see the purpose behind what they are learning. That engagement is what schools should foster not passive absorption, not silent compliance, but active thinking.
The real world does not reward conformity. It rewards adaptability, creativity and problem solving. Yet the high school continues to train students to fear deviation and prioritize perfection.
Creativity is not an extra. It is not optional. It is not a threat. Creativity is learning.
When schools suppress creativity, they do not just limit expression, they limit growth. They teach students how to follow rules instead of how to think. And when education becomes about obedience rather than understanding, it has failed its purpose.
School should not be the place where creative minds shrink themselves to survive. It should be the place where they expand. Because if high school only teaches students how to conform, then it is not preparing them for the future, it is holding them back.
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