We live in a cookie cutter world. Turn on the TV and it’s the same reality show over and over again. Read the newspaper and see a plethora of problems and a paucity of solutions. Listen to the radio and hear the same style pop song on every station.

In the classroom, I have read the same five-paragraph essay, seen the same presentation, and heard the same persuasive argument about a billion times. It’s easier to follow the mold and produce cookie cutter work, your typical, mediocre, C-average work. We can blame standardized testing and a dozen other things for reducing creativity, but I’d rather stop blaming and start doing.

This year I am determined to move students beyond the cookie cutter.

Nothing perhaps may be more important in education today than to encourage students to take risks. Risk taking enhances a student’s creativity. The inspiration for this particular post comes from a wonderful group of students I have worked with these last few weeks: my advanced public speaking classes at Metamora High. All students at Metamora take a basic communications class as a sophomore and then have the option to take an advanced course as an upperclassman.

For their first presentation, they are evaluating an element of pop culture, such as a movie, a TV show, or a musical artist and then analyzing the work in several different categories like originality. So the first thing I said to my students was, “If you are going to criticize the originality of something, you better be original in how you do it.”

Furthermore, I have emphasized that the classroom is the time to take risks. I have asked my students to find unique ways to make their presentations meaningful and memorable and to avoid the typical cookie cutter way of presenting. Even if you take a risk and the risk does not pay off, I tell my students, you will learn more from that experience than by playing it safe.

And let me tell you what I have seen! Simply by repeatedly encouraging students to take risks and be creative, here is what some have done:

* Critiquing the James Bond series while dressed as James Bond and including a Bond skit for the conclusion

* Critiquing Avatar and surprising the class by having classmates enter at the end of the presentation dressed as characters (with face paint!)

* Critiquing a rapper while the artist’s music (instrumental only) plays in the background the entire time and even rapping part of the speech

* Several students dressed similarly to the item they were critiquing, be it Monty Python, the Daily Show, Forrest Gump and much more

* Asking me to find out if anyone is epileptic so that one student can incorporate a fog machine and strobe lighting during part of the presentation

There is so much more I’d like to describe. The above may sound like theatrics, but keep in mind the students managed to intellectually and effectively evaluate and criticize various elements of popular culture all the while doing so in unique, original ways that left a memorable impression on the audience.

They took risks. They were brave. They were creative. They broke the cookie cutter mold. They are awesome, and I am proud of all of them.

I’m interested in what you are doing to enhance creativity in the classroom. How are you moving beyond the cookie cutter?