Some of you may recognise that as the famous Apple ‘Think Different’ text, others may not, but I guess whether you’ve read it before or have read it for the first time there, we can pretty much all agree that it’s an inspiring piece of text. The thing that surprised me was that when reading through it I realised that all you need to do is change one tiny piece of the text to change the whole context of it.
“We
In my mind, that’s now one hell of a motto for a better education system.
Let’s face it; the current education system just doesn’t know how to handle these kinds of people. “The round pegs in the square holes,” as Apple refers to them. The system doesn’t understand creativity. It robs all students of their creative consciousness and replaces it with structure, structure, and more structure, only to prepare them for a 9-to-5 job, Monday to Friday, every week of every year for the rest of their lives. Art, Music, Drama… you name it, the current system has a course for it. But that course doesn’t do any form of justice to the many greats that have over hundreds of years created amazing works and done incredible things, demonstrating how beautiful these arts can be. Students aren’t told to let passion drive them forward, or let their inspiration flow and their imagination stop at nothing. They are told to follow the rules, and do whatever it takes to get a ‘pass.’ Where would we be if Bach was told his Brandenburg concertos ‘didn’t quite meet the required standard’? What would have happened if Van Gogh was told his paintings just ‘didn’t make sense’?
It doesn’t stop at the arts. The suppression of creativity is seen in all fields of learning within the current system, giving no room for our real geniuses to shine. And why? Because the system has an obsession with testing, and at the end of the day you can’t test real genius, because you just can’t grade it. Who really has the right to say that a piece of music is an A or B or whatever else? Why should someone sitting in a fancy government office be able to sit there and write the rules that decide whether this piece of writing would make the grade or not? Why can’t the people deciding our futures for us be content with having some classes that have no exams? Classes that are solely there to help stimulate the different skills we all possess, without having to put us under the constant pressure of being bombarded with test after test and grade after grade. Do they see this as ‘non-educational’?
Think of the wealth of talent that is being and has been squandered due to this system. How many people would have become the next great composer if they had been given just that little bit more leeway? How many people would have had the courage to write their own novel, because they wouldn’t have been told they ‘weren’t good enough’? How many people failed to ever recognise their own potential because they were too busy striving for the best grades possible? Only so they could get a ‘good’ job in an office, with a ‘good’ salary.Don’t get me wrong, we need the people in offices to do the things that keep our public services running and our economy going, but we also need the people who create, invent, and change things. We need the people who “sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written,” because Apple is right; they push the human race forward, and have done for as long as the human race has been around. But they can’t continue to do so if we don’t help them realise they are capable of doing so. They can’t invent the cure for cancer, or compose a great symphony, or write a magnificent piece of literature if our education system tells them exactly how everything should be, and what they should learn, and what they are aiming to do with their lives. Give them the opportunity. Let them decide.
We make the mistake of thinking that the people that do well in school are the ‘smart’ ones, but that isn’t always the case. These people may just be good at retaining information and reciting it back under pressure, or may just be good at problem solving. Our schools teach these kinds of people well, because they know how to deal with them. All you need to do with these people is throw facts and figures at them and tell them they need to know them to pass, and get become qualified to get a good job... which is not even proper learning. There is no regard there for our creative ones, or even the ‘smart’ ones who can probably do so much more given the opportunity. There is no other option, no fork in the road, not even a way to have the best of both worlds. Just one path for everyone to follow, with the same goal in mind—to fit in, and become another round peg in a round hole.
Let me make myself clear right now that this is not a dig at teachers, who do a superb job. What it is, however, is a cry out to the people in suits who decide what we learn and how we learn it to change their philosophy. To realise that some people can achieve more, and that the people who will eventually find the cure for cancer, or create the next breakthrough piece of technology, or discover new planets and galaxies are in our schools. These children/students or whatever you want to call them are waiting on these people to realise and do something to help them on their way to greatness. To give them the opportunity to shine, and achieve things that both us and them can’t even imagine yet.
It really is time for our education system to start ‘Thinking Differently.’
The Bass Player
Photo 1 by nilson
Photo 2 by tim7423
10 comments:
I am thankful everyday that I teach at an alternative school. Our purpose is to serve that amazing group of students who just don't fit in anywhere yet because they have not discovered what they are good at yet. We provide them with an alternative route to a high school diploma while they are figuring all of that out! School is not at the top of their list of priorities because many times they are working to help support their family or possibly even their own babies. They are misfits, but they are great students who have a lot of potential.
All students should be provided with the chance to explore their talents and interests. Our current one-size-fits all does not allow this to happen. All teachers need to encourage our students to follow their dreams. If nothing else, it gives our students hope.
What an awesome post! As a special ed teacher, I teach many students who are different and who think different. Your post validates that it is okay to be and think differently. Thank you!
I have to admit that I am enamored by the way you have chosen to express yourself in this blog entry. Your words are reflective of what many teachers, students, and parents think about our current system and the direction that we would like to see it take. It may take some time, but if we allow our voices to be heard the changes will come, even if it is only one classroom at a time.
I think the fact is that in the smallest parts of our society, even the offices where people, as you say, run our public services, the necessity to think in unconventional ways is being recognized as more and more necessary today. Afterall, continuing to do something in the exact same way that it has always been done without realizing why is usually a recipe for disaster. When change occurs, even on the most incremental level, these people will be unable to handle it and completely inequipped to help society evolve to meet new challenges. Perhaps one of the major reasons educational institutions continue to produce people who seem unable to fit the changing social and economic landscape is that many educational systems seem to be having the greatest trouble of all evolving their own programs to meet these challenges.
My friend T.M. Stevens once told me, "You gotta know the rules, if you wanna break them." That is my motto ever since. I think people need to know the theory, they need to know why certain things are the way they are, and once they know they need to think outside the box and be creative.
The great masters of jazz use to tell their pupils to copy the cats, and once they achieve a high level they should take what they learnt and make it theirs. Meaning, learn the rules, then break them and create your own rules.
That is how change happens.
thank you all for your comments, I appericiate them a lot.
Sebastiano, I am grateful for yours in particular! Because T.M. Stevens is some what of an idol of mine in the bass world! And your words as well as his mean something to me not only in relation to this, but in relation to my music too. For that I thank you!
Sean
The Apple "Think Different" comment reminded me how great their commercials use to be.
Great post!
Very nice post. While I take your point that the education system does not cater to the artists, poets, et al., it's really not supposed to.
"Don’t get me wrong, we need the people in offices to do the things that keep our public services running and our economy going, but we also need the people who create, invent, and change things."
Society needs quite a lot more of the former than of the latter to maintain itself. That's what the system is intended to produce.
Exceptionally creative people are like an oak tree sprouting in a cornfield - the odds of it surviving years of harvest (e.g. years of standardized education) without getting chopped down are slim, but if it does, its unique character will become obvious.
Very nice post! Creativity is a dying trait and we need people in this world to let our youth understand the creativity is whats most important to let culture thrive! It is time for a new cultural revolution which will break the gears cranking to produce nothing more than copies of college professors or lawyers or doctors and so on. Those things are needed but so is creativity and culture and its time to glorify it. Let the revolution begin!
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