[MD] 42

[John Carl]

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014 at 12:35 AM, Dan Glover <daneglover at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi John and Arlo,
>
>
Hi Dan,



> I don't know if either of you found the time to watch this video
> recommended to us by Dave Buchanan:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bEeAiVnGbM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
>
>
I started to, but no, haven't got the time at the moment.


> What intrigued me was how Dr. Steiner talks about his father pointing him
> in the direction of a career in academics rather than a profession in the
> creative arts. I think Robert Pirsig goes on about this in ZMM as well. Are
> academics and creativity mutually exclusive of each other?
>
>
That presentation Arlo shared seemed to suggest so.  He shared how
divergent thinking, which is a necessary skill for creativity to happen,
can be tested and the best at it are kindergarteners and after that, with
the more education comes less ability to think divergently.  And yes, I
remember ZAMM's reference to the fact that school teaches you NOT to be
creative.



> I have a a few questions. Does academic schooling tend to breed out
> creativity in students? It would appear (to me) that a child encountering
> Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is being led to develop a skill set
> deemed necessary by the instructor but is this in the best interest of the
> child? Are teachers simply producing clones?
>
>
Imo that was a central need for industrial economies - cookie cutter people
to make cookie cutter parts of the machine.



> Arlo's talk of accessing the student's development and moving it along
> seems to indicate there are pre-designated parameters at work. Are these
> parameters based upon the individual students or are they cookie-cutter
> style textbook learning exercises designed to mimic rather than open new
> vistas?
>
> Can creativity be taught? Or is the foundation of learning rooted in a kind
> of monkey-see monkey-do?
>
>

I think kids can certainly be encouraged or discouraged to be creative and
with encouragement those who are can become moreso.  But can a completely
non-creative child be shown how to be creative?  That sounds like a tricky
one.  Telling them to write about a brick doesn't work in all cases.

Good question.  Thanks.

John