The_Liquid_Laser
Glowy Goopy Goodness
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2007
- Messages
- 3,376
- MBTI Type
- ENTP
This is interesting. I've always seen creativity as a balance between learning how to do something and being free to approach it however you like. The more you learn the how to do it, the more skilled you get at it, but the more you conform to the method and do it less uniquely your way. This is why I like the idea of teaching fundamentals rather than methods or approaches. Higher level stuff tells the student how to do something, when understanding the medium they have to work within is far more powerful.
I used to teach college level math. I remember one issue I had with students is that I wanted to teach them that there were several different ways to solve a problem and they were free to use their own method as long as they obeyed the basic rules of algebra. However I often had students complain that I did this, because they only wanted to learn one method. So eventually I just taught one method. They just wanted the easiest way to get through the course, because they didn't really like math to begin with. In fact I think there are a lot of students that don't really like most of their courses, but they just want to get a diploma and get out of school.
I think what Babylon Candle was correct when he said that something like homeschools or private tutors would be needed to encourage creativity with education. Not only do schools discourage creativity, but they've trained students to hate it too. I believe there are plenty of people, students and teachers, who are dissatisfied with the current status of education, but it is impossible to radically change the institution from within.