True but the squashing should be done with care. I had students so squashed they behaved as if anything an adult said was fact, anything printed in a book was fact. I am sure they didn't really believe that but were afraid to voice an opinion. I am sure their next teacher or teachers hated me. By the end of their year with me sometimes I hated me.

It is my opinion that talent and creative should be encouraged not discouraged. Guidance yes, instruction yes, discipline yes, but never squashed.

I agree completely. I think the "guidance" part is what I want to see more of. Guidance which doesn't require mindless following. Kids should grow up knowing what others will appreciate, but not feeling leashed to it. Just a full understanding of what the consequences of true creativity brings, good and bad, so they can make decisions they will not regret down the line. (or feel they have to blame someone else for)

What bothers me in so much teaching is insisting that some thing must be done a certain way. At least in creative things. Why does a chair have to look a certain way? Maybe the kid sees it differently. Problem solving should follow certain rules but even that can have a creative side.

I was involved in the early development of "modern math". I studied with at least one of the originators and it really upset me when teachers insisted on formalizing it and actually destroying it. I taught it to grade school students the way it was meant to be taught and the children loved. When I say taught it was more showing them and explaining and then let them explore it themselves. Modern Math was intended to be an exploration study not a text book study.