I’m going to be honest about one thing: there are far too many restrictions oftentimes when it comes to school.

Professors take the giant red pen while grading and circle, underline and comment on every little thing your paper is missing. Professors force you to take up Twitter when you may not have thought you would want or need one previously. The list goes on.

These are fairly broad examples and they do not take into consideration some exceptions. But, hear me out when I say that these situations risk stifling the creativity of students.

First, when it comes to grading essays, short answer responses and any other commentary, is it truly necessary to be so subjective as to suggest a different word to use? It’s one thing to count off for grammatical error. However, to simply mark through a word with the hated red pen by most students for another that you think is better? Forgive me, but that’s not grading; that’s stifling creativity.

I find the extremity of grading to the point of swapping words that are perfectly suitable for others that are unoriginal to be too subjective.

A writer knows what he or she means to say. A good writer can tell his or her story in a way that is clean, well-written and original. A great writer is one who is able to discern these things for him or herself and have no qualms as to whether or not someone agrees with his or her choice of words.

One’s choice of words are even more so thought about when social media such as Twitter comes into play. With only 140 characters to use per tweet, there’s only so much space to allow for one’s own thoughts. I hardly think it helps that in classes nowadays, students are being forced to remain within the bounds of strictly one topic and for strictly professional use.

I can understand that it is rare for anyone to want to read a friend’s long-winded diary entry on Facebook. I can understand that most people do not care enough to see what their friend ate for lunch on Instagram. However, Twitter, by offering only 140 characters to tweet anyway, filters many of these concerns and those related concerns out.

Besides, what’s the harm in being a little humorous (if you possesses that ability) in a tweet anyway? People are attracted to humor; it means that someone is human. The ability to be witty and clever in only so many words is a talent all on its own, if you ask me. So why stifle that by requiring that students pick a beat and stick to it?

It may seem more important for some students to tweet more than others, based on their field of study. For example, journalism students need to spread news as it hits, not hours later when it may be irrelevant. However, even these students have personalities and some means of creativity; there should be some mingling of such on these social media accounts to allow them to create their own “brand” as
a journalist.

Professors, please do not misunderstand me; I respect you and am thankful to have you all as those who I can learn from. You’re all brilliant. All I ask is that you allow your students to be brilliant as well by not restricting them where restriction is unnecessary.