I remember when I was young, before the school curriculum became focused on academic studies, that classes appeared to center around the art of creativity. I recall making designs out of shaving cream in kindergarten, writing creative stories, and having to draw to depict my interpretations of stories. This was all elementary school, but then everything changed.

In middle and high school I had to conform my creative mind to an analytic one if I wanted to make passing grades. The common core had caused curriculum to become focused on math, science, history, and English. English, however creative it might appear, was forced into steady analysis as well. Rather than taking the time to write our own ideas, we had to write critical analysis essays and argumentative papers upon strictly factual information. The only sense of creativity that seemed of good academic nature was that of interpretation, so I let my mind become infatuated with that one line of creativity.

In losing the ability to be creative over the years, I lost a part of myself as well. I could still write poetry, but I credit that to my expression of emotions. What I could no longer do was write stories. I used to write; in fact, I had plans to continue a book series from my youth. Where my mind once had never-ending bounds, it now housed the inability to express anything but fact. In all honesty, even the art of interpretation became seen as wrong to everyone but my teachers. Expressing an idea that strayed from the norm led to smirks from my peers and the attempt by them to tear my words down and prove the less common interpretation down.

It was junior year of high school before my sense of creativity began to return. I took a theology class and the interpretive art became a strong component of my grade. Where before I was being criticized for speaking my thoughts, I was now being graded to voice the deep concepts my mind conjured up. After this class I found my passion for photography and started seeing the beauty in common objects. Happiness began returning to me as I found a part of myself that had been lost for so long.

To anyone who reads this, especially the educator, I speak for all creative minds when I say: we don't think analytically. We cannot learn easily because limitations are being pressed upon our minds. I beg you to begin reinstating creativity in curriculum so that those who are geared toward more artistic passions may learn equally as well as those who easily grasp the core studies.