Iris Rodriguez de Parrilla
Amjad Al Khawam
Ndikumasabo Jean ClaudeLauren Mark’s Updates
Is modern education fostering type A personalites?
Does the modern educational system foster type A personalities in order to succeed within it? There have been arguments put forth before, by Susan Cain's "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking," that the current education and professional systems of reinforcement in the US cater to those who display extrovert behavior. In addition to this angle, though, do you feel that the current evaluation system of testing and grading caters to perfectionism? Are evaluation systems set up to reward student effort and the progress they make as much as or more than the final product they product?
Mae Jemison makes some interesting points about how both the arts and the sciences require creativity, innovation and rationality - http://www.ted.com/talks/mae_jemison_on_teaching_arts_and_sciences_together.html
In order to encourage creativity, though, we also have to value students' failures as much as their successes, given that they explored in earnest. Do you feel like your grade level, subject matter, and school allows for this? Or are the test scores the defining factor of a student's identity?
Sometimes, the skill that is being taught is more important than the outcome that is achieved. Israeli army recruits are given seemingly impossible tasks to achieve in small groups to observe how well individuals work in a team while under pressure, and who has stronger leadership skills. I recently went through an entire day of team-building training that involved challenging tasks of working with helium rods and relaying building instructions across several languages to foster our sense of camaraderie. We need to help make students aware that often, education is about building skills (social, collaborative, exploratory, etc) even more so that it is about producing results. For how can we expect them to produce mind-blowing results before a foundation is even built?
Lauren, you have raised very valid questions. Interestingly, I am also reading 'Quiet' book now a days and this book has really made me think about those students in our classrooms who prefer to remain quiet and wish to work all by themselves. But we discourage such behavior and persuade them to work in groups, speak, participate.....thus making them behave as 'pretend extrovert'. I feel our evaluation system, schools, grade level do not provide any space for accepting students' failure or valuing it in order to nurture their creativity. By stigmatizing failure a sense of fear for it has been inculcated in learners. Every one wants to play safe, just doing enough to get good grades is the main motive of many students.
I am again finding myself commenting on this post more as a parent than I am an educator (as I'm not quite there yet)! Your comments about how we must value students' failures along with their successes is true not only in relation to creativity, but all learning spaces. We learn as much from our misses as we do from our hits - maybe sometimes more. I have often felt that the traditional structure of test scores, classroom assessments and even the way things are taught don't leave much room for anything but the right answer. On the flip side, some of the more successful classrooms and libraries are run by teachers who aren't afraid to make mistakes as part of the process of teaching and learning and letting students see that happen. I read an interesting article (http://drjimtaylor.com/2.0/parenting/parenting-raise-excellent-not-perfect-children/) several years ago about perfectionism in young people. What I took away most from the article was that these kids end up avoiding anything that they may fail at – and based on my above comments and your post, that is keeping them from experimenting, creating, innovating and more. When these students can’t ensure the desired outcome, they avoid the situation altogether. I do worry that the current system is more focused on the outcome than they are on the process of arriving there – and I strongly suspect that the real learning is happening during the process.