EDUCATING AN ORIGINAL THINKER

“How teachers and parents can identify and cultivate children who think creatively and unconventionally”

By: Jessica Lahey

Published: The Atlantic, Feb 12 2016,  http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/educating-an-original-thinker/462468/  

Level of difficulty: ***

VIDEOS TO WATCH AND MAKE NOTES ON IN PREPARATION FOR THE READING TASK

·         Cognitive Thinking: Creativity, Brainstorming and Convergent & Divergent Thinking

http://study.com/academy/lesson/cognitive-thinking-creativity-brainstorming-and-convergent-divergent-thinking.html

·         Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity

QUESTIONS

1.       What is the purpose of the Jessica Lahey in writing the article? To clarify….

2.       Modern teachers are giving up on traditional classroom practices in the hope of fostering…..

3.       Acc to Grant, a certain amount of structure and discipline is necessary in the classroom to avoid………………………foster……………………………and prevent……………………

4.       What is the jigsaw classroom and why is it recommended?

5.       The examples concerning Franklin and Lucy Stone  are meant to prove that …………………………will help promote ……………………………………..

6.       Making mavericks a part of the solution will help discover ………………………….

7.       Why do many teachers prefer obedient students who will do as they are told?

8.       Adopting George Lucas’s proposal will help lessen / increase / decrease / slow down /demand for imaginative and inventive activities during school.

9.       Albert Einstein was always getting into trouble with his math teachers who wanted him to focus on the …………………….they emphasized. What they should have done was to allow a compromise by ……………………………………………

10.   Not promoting creativity in the classroom has disadvantages both for the individual and the society as a whole because on the one hand …………………………….; on the other hand…………………………………………………….

11.   Focusing on values rather than rules is vital because such an approach allows kids to …………………………………………………………………………………….

WRITING TASK

Use the information you have gleaned from the videos you have watched and the text you have studied to discuss the ways in which creativity is stifled in modern education and the changes that should be made. Remember to provide justification and examples. Before you start, read the following short text and make some notes; remember to also watch the video:
Gifted Children and Lack of Attention http://giftedkids.about.com/od/schoolissues/qt/inattentive.htm

EDUCATING AN ORIGINAL THINKER KEY AND TEACHERS’ NOTES
This superb text highlights the importance of fostering creativity in children. It focuses on the untold damage done by an unnecessary emphasis on structure and rules and discusses ways in which creativity can be increased and allowed to develop. The writing task brings the text and the videos together and presents quite a cognitive challenge.

1. To clarify the role teachers play in educating original children, and how teachers and parents alike can protect what’s special in these original children
2. Original thinking (you can’t foster a person)
3. Choice paralysis, the development of frameworks for figuring out how to approach a problem, failure to implement new ideas.
4. It is a classroom where the teacher lectures for 10 minutes then lets kids develop their own way of teaching the lesson learned and present in small groups. It prevents stereotypes and prejudice and it is a great way to nurture creative thinking.
5. Reinterpreting something the students have learnt; creative thinking.
6. A positive outlet for their rebellion
7. They are easier to teach
8. Increase
9. Formulaic instruction ; giving students the freedom to explore new solutions once they’ve demonstrated understanding of existing ones
10. Teachers’ unwelcoming attitudes may alienate children from formal education; teachers’ dislike of the behaviors associated with creativity leads to the extinction of those behaviors.
11. Take ownership over their own system of values (that…)