Sabine Grant
Member
Let's rewind, shall we?If the OP was talking about unbridled creativity, you would have been on-topic.
Yoda-speak doesn't make your false premise true.But regardless of that, one comment directed at the premise of a post does not a derail make.
The OP contains the premise that creativity is awesome and schools should be doing something that results in more of it. I'm not sure what.
When I asked what earlier there was a curious silence. I take that silence as evidence it is possible for people to ignore my posts if they are so inclined.
Your first post in this thread :
http://talkfreethought.org/showthre...-kill-creativity&p=81281&viewfull=1#post81281
Somehow you might have thought it addressed the comments made by Sir Ken Robinson which should be easy to comprehend for anyone who took the time to view the presented video in the OP.
He covers several important points. Among them :
- Why are arts not considered most valuable curriculum items or at least as valuable as math and language. What is the source of such devaluation when it comes to art and music? The answer (which you should know if you actually viewed the tape) should hint that the consequence of such devaluation is that it also affects negatively how we define intelligence and more importantly the qualities or properties of intelligence :
1) Intelligence is diverse. 2) Dynamic or interactive 3) Distinct.
He illustrated each property/quality via real life examples. Essentially what has happened in an educational system which has persisted in educating children based on what has most academic value versus minimal value, is a dismissal of each individual's potential. The distinct intelligence of the little girl he mentioned who was so bored and distracted during math and language classes. Always so fidgety. Then as an adult undertook to explore the why and how of her behavior, it was discovered that this little girl wanted to be a dancer. Her parents nurtured her towards ballet dancing in which she became very successful as a member of the Royal Ballet and is today a millionaire. Not only she pursued to be a successful adult but also doing what made her most happy and as such a wonderful entertainer, she made millions of people happy too.
But the current educational system does not take into account individual happiness. It takes into account what was dictated by industrialism in the 19th century. Let's push those children towards careers meeting the demand of an economy based on profit and accumulation of material wealth.
As a result, so many adults have lost touch with what it means to have a career based on what makes you most happy. What they envisioned as children to become as adults was stifled via the current educational system. They are indeed being discouraged from becoming adults who will rely on their own individual intelligence, so diverse from other children, so differently interactive and dynamic and so distinct. They are to be conformed to the vision of a society where the pursuit of happiness can only be achieved via material wealth.
That is what I gathered from Sir Robinson's message. To compare what I gathered with your 2 inane one liners (linked to above) which were immediately challenged ( and please, do not pull the card anymore of being a victim of attacks).
Do I agree with his stances and argumentation? I certainly do. I have observed the difference between motivating a group of students to rely on their capacity for creativity and sticking to conventional teaching methods when I taught ( as an experimental class) my beloved native language. The experiment was conducted under the patronage of the Department Of defense Dependents School System when we were stationed in Italy. In my class, K and 1st Graders. Kids who have yet to have developed reading and writing skills in their own native language, English. I made them full participants of how we were going to discover French. I gave them tools and it was up to them to put those tools together and figure out what was the best way for them to absorb the language. In such fashion they relied on their blooming creativity to perform a play in French. If certainly not an intellectual masterpiece, what a delight to see those young children having an absolute epiphany, being on a stage they decorated themselves, having put together their own lines in a foreign language. The tool I gave them was when I read for them The Little Prince. They all wanted to be the Little Prince. ahahaha.
They had to learn to compromise with each other to take turns being the Fox or the Little Prince. Suddenly, I had an assembly of very young minds learning how to meet half way. They used their innovative thinking to negotiate and agree. It was amazing. Instead of my controlling that process, imposing the how on those children, I let them rely on their capacity to innovate.
And that takes us to the next step on how educators can contribute to motivating the use of critical thinking. Think "outside the box". Think of alternatives. Explore deep into your mind because right in there will be the thought you can rely on to deal with a situation you never encountered before. Right in there the thought which will contribute to problem solving. You will become a resourceful person and that resourcefulness will be very valuable as an adult.
But in order to do that, educators will need to be motivational speakers rather than controlling and imposing.And a motivational educator who relies on his/her own capacity for creativity in the way they teach or their teaching style. It becomes "contagious" to their audience of students.