Subject: Creativity

Posted by Eric Stiens on 10/12/2010
In Reply To:Creativity Posted by Ed Johnson on 10/12/2010

Message:

John Gatto, former teacher of the year in New York and author of "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" and "Weapons of Mass Instruction" among others makes the case that our education system teaches the following things very well, others not so much

1. Confusion (The natural order of real life is violated by heaping disconnected facts on students.)
2. Class Position/Hierarchy (Children are locked together into categories where the lesson is that “everyone has a proper place in the pyramid.”)
3. Indifference (Inflexible school regimens deprive children of complete experiences.)
4. Emotional dependency (Kids are taught to surrender their individuality to a “predestined chain of command.”
5. Intellectual dependency (One of the biggest lessons schools teach is conformity rather than curiosity.)
6. Provisional self-esteem (“The lesson of report cards, grades, and tests, is that children should not trust themselves or their parents, but should instead rely on the evaluation of certified officials.”)
7. One can’t hide (Schooling and homework assignments deny children privacy and free time in which to learn from parents, from exploration, or from community.
http://www.schoolhouse.org.uk/uploads/2009/11/the_fourth_purpose.pdf

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So I would go even further into this discussion and ask

Why do we care about making kids more creative? Why do we care about "teaching" at all or place a value on education? Is it because we want them to get better jobs? Well then, who will do the "bad jobs" Other teacher's students? Or do we want them to question a world in which some people have to do undesirable jobs and other people get to do fulfilling jobs and figure out how to either come to terms with that or change it, but at least ask the question. Do we want them to know how to do math because knowing multiplication is somehow one of the purposes of being on earth? Do we want them to invent things so we can live longer in our ripe old ages? Do we want them to be successful or do we want them be happy?

Etc

Follow Ups:

Creativity - Philip Abode 10/12/2010 
Creativity - sofia garciadealba 10/12/2010 
Creativity - Alex Leus 10/12/2010
Creativity - Sharon Villines 10/12/2010