It’s the lifelong question: is it better for schools to stimulate creativity in the classroom, or the memorization of information?

For some, creativity is the key. Many learn from using visual aids, unique ways of learning, or doing artistic projects.

“I feel like learning from creativity helps remembering (information) in a long term sense,” sophomore Megan Le said. “I can learn stuff through memorization, but it won’t stick permanently.”

There are some students that strongly disagree, stating that school is for retaining information, and that if someone wants to have a creative route, they should do it elsewhere.

However, Le said that Granite Bay does a good job encouraging going towards all careers.

“If students want to go to an artistic field, they can choose classes that fit their career,” Le said.

Many would say that the “impracticality” of an art-based career isn’t the most positive direction a student should go.

Freshman Neel Lal said that even though schools do sometimes encourage having a math or science based career, there is a good mix of classes that incorporates both art and science or math.

A common complaint among both students and parents that there aren’t enough projects or activities that make students think outside the box.

But for teachers, there’s a different way of looking at it. For certain teachers, getting the students to be creative or to “use their imaginations” simply doesn’t pertain to the lesson or subject they teach.

“(Creative activities) can be time consuming and you have to make sure it’s relevant,” Katie Angelone, teacher of AP European History and World History, said.

“I think that’s the biggest challenge. You want the students to be engaged and be creative, but…you also want to make sure it’s meaningful, not just fun,” Angelone said.

Students don’t see eye to eye with the teachers’ point of view, as many students believe that there is almost little to no creative practices in classrooms.

“Teachers don’t do a very good job implementing creativity into classrooms,” Le said. “All teachers want you to do is memorize and pass the midterm or pass the test and increase the class average.”

But there are also those that disagree.

Keaton Dougherty, a sophomore, said he believes that depending on the teacher, they do a very good job making sure that students enhance their creative sides to what they’re learning.

But for certain classes, it might be hard to implement creative practices depending on what the curriculum requires.

“Unfortunately in AP (classes) there’s not a whole lot of time (to be creative) because there’s such a crunch,” Angelone said. “I think that’s what the Common Core is trying to do – allow more creativity and critical thinking to go hand in hand.”

There’s a lot of speculation on whether or not creativity will ever be a natural part of the education system.

In fact, with new implements to schools, creative classrooms might be on their way sooner than students expect.