Sir Ken Robinson's lecture, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" (Technology, Education, Design Summit, 2006) is an inspiring 20 minute lecture on the goals of education.
"Kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. They're not afraid of being wrong... If you're not prepared to be wrong you'll never come up with anything original. By the time they are adults, kids have lost that capacity. They have become afraid of being wrong. [But as they grow up in the classroom and the workplace] we stigmatize mistakes. We are now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make...the result is, we are educating people out of their creative capacities. Why is this?"
Here's the video (with apologies for the BMW commercials):
Robinson's home page itself is very creative and includes information about his writing on creativity and the arts in education, including a link to his article, "How Creativity, Education and the Arts Shape the Modern Economy" (pdf).
Arnzen,
I don't believe that schools are killing creativity- if anything, teachers are the only ones that are inspiring many of these kids. What it comes down to is that Americans are being programmed (and reprogrammed) to avoid reading and writing, in favor of cheap blasts of entertainment and emotionless communication, such as text messaging, instant messaging and emails. Generation Y, in particular is increasingly uncreative and uninspiring in that they cannot effectively express themselves and are extremely conservative- there is no Baby Boomer Revolution/60's Spirit or Generation X Angst/Rebellion. Generation Y is like.. the bland tap water that puts out the fires.
Writing has become a lost art, such as the ability to fully express one's emotions and opinions. The number of students I have on a daily basis that completely lack the ability to express themselves is staggering. Essay questions and writing prompts, even those which are thought provoking fall on deaf ears, and are simply completed- without deeper, or higher levels of thought, without self-expression, and most alarming, without any sense of purpose.
Bush's "No Child Left Behind" has essentially stripped all aspects of creative and abstract thought from our schools, altering education at the very core. Learning is now simple, rote memory, based upon "facts" (manipulated to serve a specific agenda) and emphasis on test scores, to keep the schools funded. Since you cannot accurately assess a concept like "imagination" creative thought is not being taught. Over one, perhaps two generations, people are reduced to simple tools of the establishment, to do and say exactly what they need to, to ensure that there will be food on the table and a shiny new electronic gadget in their pocket. People are being trained, not to think, but to desire material objects over intellect.
The costs of higher education will continue to rise, eventually putting colleges and universities well beyond the means of the average citizen, and degrees into the hands of only the social/economic elite. This is not to say that the college education will be any different than that of K-12, since independent thought is not stressed at lower levels, why would it be in the upper reaches of education? Our universites, once small epicenters in every city of progressive thought, revolution and protest are already tamed. People attend college now to get a higher paying (note.. "higher," not "high") job than those with only a high school diploma, not to change the "system." Trade and technical schools will continue to flourish, as they are more in line with the average person's desires to simply make a living. Furthermore, since trade and technical schools are geared to a specific target, rather than "all over the place," so to speak, it makes sense for a young person without an understanding of creative thought. I see this all the time... students asking "why do I gotta learn this," and then not understanding concepts of "being well rounded," "cultured" or "well read."
If we can no longer think abstractly, if we have no desire to question, if we let others do the thinking for us, we lose everything. Suddenly, things like warrantless wiretaps, video surveillance, 9/11, election fraud, illegal wars, shady dealings, unprovoked search and seizure, Blackwater, loss of privacy, loss of rights, war crimes, overturning of constitutional ammendments, torture camps, rewriting history, etc. are accepted, and unquestioned. When something does surface, it will be quickly overshadowed by "real news" such as a celebrity being put back into rehab or some politician having an affair, and then forgotten. Since people have extremely short attention spans as it is, you see my point.
When you think about it even further, you begin to notice patterns, as if this was all planned. 9/11 alone demands open investigation, but it never will receive what it deserves, because people wouldn't believe that their government, those that they elected and supported could do such a thing. There is so much truth out there- but people quickly turn away from it, out of fear or apathy. The further we get from using our minds, the further we are from that truth; in essence, we are no longer human, but cheap labor to fuel commodity.
-Mike S. from Lit Crit, 2005
Er... "emotionless communication, such as text messaging, instant messaging and emails" ? I agree that social e-text lacks the subtlety and depth that we associate with the traditional essay. And I agree social communication is not always intellectually weighty, but because e-text is so immediate, there tends to be less of a barrier between what people feel and what they put into e-text, so the result is that emotions (and the misinterpretation thereof) are a huge part of online interactions.
Keep fighting the good fight, Mike S. Each time they hear about the importance of abstract thinking, deep cognitive understanding, and the value of a broad liberal arts education is another chance for it to sink in.
Jerz, true on what you mentioned about e-text, but what are the majority of people texting?
SUP C U L8R OMG HE IS HAWT LOL I KNO RITE?
Yep.
Oh, and of course I'll keep up the good fight... SHU taught me how to do just that ;-)
Mike S.