We all know the richest people in the world: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, to name a few. What do all these men have in common? Money? Yes. Technology? Yes. Success? Arguable.

But, what brought these men to these high-points in our time? What has brought them so high up, there is almost no one who doesn’t know who they are? My answer is creativity. Creativity, I argue, is one of the most overlooked pieces in our education system, and perhaps that’s why Elon Musk feels the education system is broken in America.

The system we have set in place is standard enough, but it focuses on congesting students into groups and categories, to where they would pursue something that frankly, might not even make them happy to do. Think about it: In Kindergarten, 1st-5th grade, what care would you have in the world? Beyond your Halloween candy and which friends you still had on the playground, what was there to stress about? Nothing, and if there was a lot of stress in your childhood, I am so sorry to hear that.

As we get older, and especially in this generation, everyone begins to become more cynical and depressed. Studies show that around 20-30% of high school students struggle with depression (chronic or occasional). I don’t believe that statistic is a coincidence, that as we get older we become more and more depressed, and less and less creative.

For me, I have always been confident in my gifts. Even since Kindergarten creativity was everything to me. I have always strived to push people to create. I want people to be successful, I want creativity to push society with more and more creative people. How does Jeff Bezos make his money? He’s creative. He creates. He makes systems, businesses, jobs, and his creativity is only matched by those I mentioned earlier. Why are rich people so few and far between? Because school does not emphasize creativity or encourage imagination enough. Elon Musk was so fed up with the way schools did things, he created his own experimental school that focused less on curriculums, and about problem solving the unknown. 

School teaches problem solving plenty, but just how many problems do you know how to fix by the time you graduate? Well as a senior at Greeley West, I can say I haven’t used a ton of what I learned these years over time. School doesn’t focus enough on the individual and likes to group students into a system, one that funnels out no uniqueness or creativity, and when one star shines after being put through that filter, those are your Bezos’s or Gates.

Our system is clearly broken, and anyone could recognize that if they had the creativity to, and problem solving outside of the classroom. I just wish schools would push to give students the same abilities these billionaires have, so everyone can be successful, which is why I’ve always believed school is setting people up for failure.