Does School Kill Creativity?

Students are taught from a young age to do things "by the book." Anything not done this way is considered incorrect. Slowly, this perspective on education wears down a child's natural-born creativity until it is basically nonexistent. Students are told that the "intelligent" kids are the ones who can read and write. What about the children who can sing and dance? Are they not intelligent? Many believe that those students are not as smart as the children who excel in academics, since schools base intelligence strictly on an academic level. School systems do not encourage students to take art and music like they do math and english. This is a big reason as to why many people dread school: they are forced to give up the classes they are passionate about to take classes that school boards think are important. If schools paid more attention to students' interests, maybe more kids would feel like they're actually learning something worth while in class. Although schools everywhere will swear that they aim to help students think outside the box and embrace creativity, the sad truth is that schools more often than not try to make all students focus on academic-based activites, and that isn't fair. Creativity should definitely become a bigger aspect for teachers to focus on.