In elementary and middle school, many students in the United States are required to take an art or music class. Students at a young age are encouraged to think outside the box. But as we grow older, we begin to stray farther and farther from this idiom. Tests are given with only 4 answer choices per question. Adults get set into routines their job entails, like worker bees at the hive.

It makes sense that we should encourage creativity and challenge normal conventions, especially as we get older. We need to teach children at a young age the creative process so that they have it with them when they are faced with a problem. It's creativity by people like Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson, and Edward Jenner that has fostered societal advances. We can't allow the next generation of thinkers to be swept under the rug.

Adults always seem to stress the importance and practicality of making money. They aren't wrong since materialism (who can attain the most goods) has grown to be the central goal of a society. We should teach that ideas are worth as much as tangible goods. Practicality shouldn't always stymie creativity. If becoming an adult is so boring and stressful, why bother growing up anyway?