Stolen from arcana_j.



I can't find anything in this speech that I disagree with.

An interesting lecture. Personally, I think the point is more that public education devalues creativity rather than kills it, but that might just be my interpretation. As a poster boy for the "what are you going to do with *that* degree?" set, I would still say that there's a great deal of value to be had from math and literature, and that society as a whole devalues those more than they should... but yes, I do sigh heavily when I hear the usual bit about removing art and music programs from schools to make sure they focus all of their time on getting kids up to the "no child left behind" standards.

On a side note, I have noticed that hierarchy within the arts that he mentions here. It seems to me that the more one mixes the "pure" arts, the lower it ranks on the totem pole, so to speak:

The fine arts, literature and music are all "pure" art and highly respected. Combine artwork with literature and now it's slightly less so... it's a picture book. The more pictures, the less respected it becomes.

A play requires the written word... making it less respected than the word alone. Make it a musical, and it's even less respected. (Of note: Opera perhaps escapes this trap, but then it's nearly a concert with costumes on... the lines are almost all sung, rather than simply acted...) Dance requires music, so it is a bit less pure than a concert, but alone (ballet) it is far more respected than singing and dancing (and acting.) A movie requires photography, in addition to the rest of the arts above, and is often seen as less than a live stage version of the same material... and so on and so forth.

Of course, there's still plenty of room for hierarchy withing a realm of pure art itself. I listened to many professors in art school tell me why sculpture or painting was the one "true" art. Print-making? Design? Egads, those were almost "crafts". One thing both the painters and the sculptors agreed on: Drawing wasn't an art itself, it was just what you did before you got started on the actual art piece. Kind of like how a blueprint wasn't nearly a house.

I got my concentration in drawing anyway. And hey... I actually got a job with it. Go figure.

"Kids aren't afraid of being wrong."

I have ten plus years of teaching experience telling me what utter garbage that is. Kids are terrified of being wrong in school. They don't want to look foolish, they don't want to waste their time working on something and finding out their efforts were for nothing. They like being told the answer, or at the very least have their hand held and constantly assured that what they are doing is right as they look for it.

I believe at that point he was talking about 4 year olds, wasn't he? I think he was arguing that school actually trains kids to fear being wrong, and so not make attempts when they aren't sure what they're expected to do.

I quoted him directly. I didn't hear any qualifiers like "little" or "young."




> I think he was arguing that school actually trains kids to fear being wrong,

OF COURSE he was. All the more listen not to listen to him, really, since the current trend in education is for teachers to "facilitate" "discovery based learning" with their students, and have them arrive at their own answers. Nothing wrong with that, of course, provided that the kids have the basic skills to perform such things (many don't) or the interest in actually having to put more of an effort into their classwork (many don't).



>and so not make attempts when they aren't sure what they're expected to do.


Or, more likely, they just want to be given the "right" answer because its easier (even in circumstances where there is no "right" answer)