"Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand."
Brian Alger has a simply wonderful blog that has a focus,but not an exclusive one on what it it is to learn. This quote from Confucius sums up what I feel to be his approach.
A few snips:
In my own experiences as an educator I constantly came up against the inability of the educational system to question its own presuppositions. Creative approaches to education were often nothing more than variations on the theme of the machine rather than something that could authentically be referred to as creativity. The machine adds layers upon layers of variations under various guises. We see this today most prominently in the issue of violence and bullying in schools. Rather than honestly and openly questionning itself as a potential source of the problem, the curriculum machine adds a layer upon layer of responses. For example, a bullying task force and increasing funds for counseling are common responses to the issue of bullying - an added layer - while the curriculum itself churns along much as it had in the past.
The problem with authentic creativity is that it results in fundamental change. In contrast, status quo creativity reinforces the existing system. These two kinds of creativity are significantly different. Authentic creativity results in an entirely new composition, while status quo creativity adds another variation to an existing theme. Artists understand this difference, and it is perhaps due to the fact that the artists' exclusive focus on authentic creativity that serves to marginalize them in society. In my experience, most organizations are not really looking for authentic creativity, or a source of creativity that fundamentally alters the basicv presuppositions of our work, but tend to embrace status quo creativity, or a creativity that reinforces exisiting norms. Artists, whether they be immersed in science, history, math, or the traditional arts themselves, are typical unwelcome entitites in closed, self-reinforcing systems.
The curriculum machine avoids the perceptual acuity of the artist, for it knows that if that perceptual acuity is turned upon itself its reason for existing would be brought into question. Instead, it embraces the language of authentic creativity all the while ensuring it never takes hold.
