ben's blog

Creativity is just as important as literacy

Sir Ken Robison asserts that our educational system, by and large, kills creativity in our children. Because the world is changing so fast, he says, "Creativity, now, is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."

Watch a fascinating, humorous, and moving 20-minute TED talk:

Is going to college the automatic best choice for everyone?

Two related things I saw today bring me to the observation that, conventional wisdom notwithstanding, going to college is not automatically the best thing to do with one's life.

The first is this hilarious comic:

The second is the third educational myth from a new book by Charles Murray (ht: Scot McKnight)

Myth 3: Everyone should go to college.
Truth 3: Too many students are going to college.

What do you guys think of this? Definitely goes against conventional wisdom, doesn't it?

Sleep deprivation in tweens and teenagers

Check out this article on the effects of sleep deprivation on kids. Apparently kids are getting one less hour of sleep than they used to, and it's having an adverse effect on their cognitive abilities and emotional stability.

"It’s even possible that many of the hallmark characteristics of being a tweener and teen—moodiness, depression, and even binge eating—are actually symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation."

(ht: Marko)

Thoughts on education

Here are 10 Propositions on Education. My experience seems to bear these out in considerable detail. My favorite:

5. Life is not a True/False test; therefore the best learning is open-ended. Like life, true education is punctuated with ellipses (...) and question marks (?) not full stops (.).

(ht: Ben Myers)

This is why I opted for the Master's program I did - the British style of learning is a lot more open to questioning and implications being chased down and thought being developed. I am appreciating that it is not cut-and-dried, self-assured, multiple-choice fact-regurgitating.

This is also why I think in the emerging postmodern culture that honest questions will take us a lot further than smug answers (we still need some answers, but they'll need to be humble, they can never be smug). Teachers who listen will be more effective in real education than those who stick with the notes, no matter what.

In the world we find ourselves in journey is just as important as destination, the way we travel is just as important as where we are going, how is just as important as what.