One part I wasn’t a huge fan of was the contrast of this:
There is a form of education – increasingly popular over the last few decades – which most values cooperation, collaboration, quietness, sedentariness, empathy, equality, non-competitiveness, conformity, a communal focus, inclusivity, affirmation, inoffensiveness, sensitivity, non-confrontation, a downplaying of physicality, and an orientation to the standard measures of grades, tests, and a closely defined curriculum (one could, with the appropriate qualifications, speak of this as a ‘feminization’ of education).
… with this:
A completely contrasting mode of education, one more typical of traditional – and male-oriented – educational systems, values internalized confidence, originality, agonism, independence of thought, creativity, assertiveness, the mastery of one’s feelings, a thick skin and high tolerance for your own and others’ discomfort, disputational ability, competitiveness, nerve, initiative, imagination, and force of will
It’s possible that this is a honest assessment of changed (I don’t know enough about the cultural shifts in education), but to me it looks suspiciously like extra applause lights have been sneaked in one of the laundry lists, and extra boo lights have been sneaked in the other.
More specifically, in this case, I don’t think that “modern” education downplays creativity and imagination compared to “traditional” education of say a century ago. If anything, modern education seems to praise creativity and imagination that the evil old restrictive education model didn’t care enough about.
“There used to be more emphasis on creativity” may true despite current praise of creativity, or it may only be true about higher education and not primary education … but I also find it pretty likely that those were added to the list as extra applause lights to make the author’s preferred side look better.
More specifically, in this case, I don’t think that “modern” education downplays creativity and imagination compared to “traditional” education of say a century ago. If anything, modern education seems to praise creativity and imagination that the evil old restrictive education model didn’t care enough about.
There is a lot of mindkilling about education. To me it seems that for some people, “creativity” is simply an applause light that trumps everything. You can never go unpopular with creativity. Even if you don’t teach anything, if you say that you gave students an opportunity to be creative, you are forgiven. On the other hand, even the best realistic results can be devaluated by saying: yeah, but there is not enough room for creativity during his lessons.
Or, using more LW terms, creativity became a lost purpose in education. In the beginning, creativity was seen as an instrumental goal which could help increase knowledge. In the end, creativity became a goal in itself, and knowledge lost its status.
Sure! But the linked article is pretending that “creativity” was a feature of the good ol’ “masculine” education system, whereas the new “feminized” one is more about conformity. And he only manages to make that claim sorta kinda believable-if-you-don’t-pay-attention by putting those in the middle of big lists of other adjectives that might apply.
He may actually be referring to a mode of education that did foster creativity, but I find it more likely that he’s just accepting the modern creativity-as-applause-light and using that applause light to make his side look better.
Verging away from the original point, I think creativity is worth pursuing on it’s own, but isn’t particularly worth admiring on it’s own. Being creative will help you make better bridges or cars or paintings (so “creativity” is an important concept when designing a curriculum, or hiring engineers, or considering your own self-improvement), but judging a painting or a piece of music by how “creative” it is makes almost as little sense as judging a bridge by how impressive that maths used to design it were.
I prefer to think in terms of “creative problem-solving” or “artistic skill” rather than “creativity”—at least those can’t be used to describe random originality (“u can call me t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m!!!!!!!! lol”).
On the other hand, the fact that I made it reflects that creativity is the applause light of the new system… which does not automatically mean that the new system really supports creativity (and in some other discussion I could be the one who opposes this), but at least we should not include it to the other list without a proper discussion.
More meta: comparing two systems by providing a list of adjectives is an evidence for mindkilling.
Or, using more LW terms, creativity became a lost purpose in education.
Agreed. Robin Hanson has a good article on why creativity is overrated. “Critics complain that schools squelch creativity, but most people are inclined to be more creative on the job than would be truly productive.”
One part I wasn’t a huge fan of was the contrast of this:
… with this:
It’s possible that this is a honest assessment of changed (I don’t know enough about the cultural shifts in education), but to me it looks suspiciously like extra applause lights have been sneaked in one of the laundry lists, and extra boo lights have been sneaked in the other.
More specifically, in this case, I don’t think that “modern” education downplays creativity and imagination compared to “traditional” education of say a century ago. If anything, modern education seems to praise creativity and imagination that the evil old restrictive education model didn’t care enough about.
“There used to be more emphasis on creativity” may true despite current praise of creativity, or it may only be true about higher education and not primary education … but I also find it pretty likely that those were added to the list as extra applause lights to make the author’s preferred side look better.
There is a lot of mindkilling about education. To me it seems that for some people, “creativity” is simply an applause light that trumps everything. You can never go unpopular with creativity. Even if you don’t teach anything, if you say that you gave students an opportunity to be creative, you are forgiven. On the other hand, even the best realistic results can be devaluated by saying: yeah, but there is not enough room for creativity during his lessons.
Or, using more LW terms, creativity became a lost purpose in education. In the beginning, creativity was seen as an instrumental goal which could help increase knowledge. In the end, creativity became a goal in itself, and knowledge lost its status.
Sure! But the linked article is pretending that “creativity” was a feature of the good ol’ “masculine” education system, whereas the new “feminized” one is more about conformity. And he only manages to make that claim sorta kinda believable-if-you-don’t-pay-attention by putting those in the middle of big lists of other adjectives that might apply.
He may actually be referring to a mode of education that did foster creativity, but I find it more likely that he’s just accepting the modern creativity-as-applause-light and using that applause light to make his side look better.
Verging away from the original point, I think creativity is worth pursuing on it’s own, but isn’t particularly worth admiring on it’s own. Being creative will help you make better bridges or cars or paintings (so “creativity” is an important concept when designing a curriculum, or hiring engineers, or considering your own self-improvement), but judging a painting or a piece of music by how “creative” it is makes almost as little sense as judging a bridge by how impressive that maths used to design it were.
I prefer to think in terms of “creative problem-solving” or “artistic skill” rather than “creativity”—at least those can’t be used to describe random originality (“u can call me t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m!!!!!!!! lol”).
Oops, my mistake.
On the other hand, the fact that I made it reflects that creativity is the applause light of the new system… which does not automatically mean that the new system really supports creativity (and in some other discussion I could be the one who opposes this), but at least we should not include it to the other list without a proper discussion.
More meta: comparing two systems by providing a list of adjectives is an evidence for mindkilling.
Agreed. Robin Hanson has a good article on why creativity is overrated. “Critics complain that schools squelch creativity, but most people are inclined to be more creative on the job than would be truly productive.”