<p>Ha ha, its a trick. Please grade my essay. I would really appreciate feedback.</p>
<p>Think carefully about the information presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.</p>
<p>Many people believe that closed doors make us creative. These people argue that obstacles and restrictions are necessary, for without them we would never be forced to come up with new solutions. But closed doors, either in the form of specific obstacles or a lack of opportunities, often prevent people from reaching their full creative potential.</p>
<p>Assignment:
Do closed doors make us creative? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>In the last decade, “opening doors” for children has been one of the largest concerns both parents and world leaders. The development of products such as “Baby Einstein” and policies like “No Child Left Behind” reflect the growing trend to provide young people with every opportunity possible to succeed. However, a recent article in Newsweek shows that these developments lead to higher IQ scores, but lower creative abilities. In fact, it seems that the “closed doors” are what fosters creativity.
Albert Einstein is universally acknowledged for his creative brilliance. However, his success is often attributed to the fact that he was an outsider, facing the “closed door.” Einstein could not gain any respect in the academic field for the first few years of his life; he was even turned down for a high school teaching position! As a result, he found a job reviewing patents in Switzerland. It was in the patent office where Einstein formulated his theories on special relativity, brownian motion, and the photoelectric effect. In fact, in one year, Einstein was able to publish four groundbreaking papers. This shocked the scientific community because Einstein did not have an academic position, nor did he have a lab. Einstein’s success has often been characterized by the fact that he was behind a “closed door.” Because Einstein was not an accepted part of the scientific community, he was able to think differently, and came up with creative theories that violated the accepted notions of Newtonian Physics. In fact, Einstein’s lack of any funding forced him to rely on thought experiments alone to formulate his ideas! Unfortunately, when Einstein became recognized for his genius (when the “door” was opened), he was no longer able to produce such groundbreaking works. It was a direct result of closed doors that fostered Einstein’s creativity.
With the current focus on increasing educational opportunities for children, creativity and free time have often been neglected. As more “doors” open for children, their creativity is stifled and they are often forced to adhere to their parent’s dreams of their future success. The Newsweek expose on this topic concluded that it was the “open doors” and greater accessibility that was causing the decrease in creativity. Children are no longer allowed to be free thinkers, like Einstein, but are instead subjected to strict and rigorous academic programs. The lack of obstacles and “closed doors” do not force the children to think for themselves, but merely follow the rigorous academic programs and educational activities that they are involved in. Children are no longer allowed to pursue their interests in their free time, and as a result, there are not as many prodigies as there were merely twenty years ago.</p>