Sorry, but Kenzie isn't feel well today. So I'm stuck at home today.
Here is what your assignments are - first read pages 28-48 (the "chapters" of "Thinking about Your Choice" and "Indoctrination: How We Got Here"). Then complete this guide.
Then when you've read those chapters, especially "Indoctrination: How We Got Here," watch the video from Godin below. Leave two takeaways from it. Then leave two responses to the takeaways from your peers. Thanks.
Finally, for tomorrow read up to page 79 in Linchpin.
See you Friday.
Godin's theories on how schools came to originate seem a bit on the conspiracy side of things (Cobb would no doubt love it), but I can see how it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAs Godin said, none of us alive today can imagine having one pair of pants and one pair of shoes. We live in a society saturated with media and advertising. In fact, our entire economy is built on buying things. A lot of things! But when I think about it, Godin's theories actually make a lot of sense.
What are some of the first things you are taught in elementary school? Obedience. How to follow routines and how to follow rules. This isn't inherently bad . . . in fact, I think it's essential. BUT the problem is compounded by the fact that this continues all the way up through where you are now.
As Mr. Zutz has said time and again, LHS is great about delivering content to you and having you prove what you know on tests or papers. But how often will you ever take a test or write a paper in the "real" world? Not very often. And you will be able to look up the answers on your own and work in teams to solve problems. How often are you allowed to do that with the tests and papers you do now? So I see a bit of that obedience training happening here.
Another aspect of school that Godin brings up, and which I never thought about until now, is how it is designed to make us all consumers. Just think of this, how many times did you go off to elementary school and come home begging your parents to get something (a t-shirt, a back pack, a Lego set up, a book, or a toy) that you saw one of your classmates playing with?
This is intriguing to me.
What would happen if we stopped buying crap we don't NEED? What would happen to amazing, Wal-Mart, and Sephora (sorry Jadyn)?
What would happen if we stopped watching crap we don't NEED? What would happen to movie theaters? Amazon Prime? Netflix?
I find the comments made at the 10:00 mark really interesting.
ReplyDeleteWe are at a cross-roads. The only things we are willing to talk about, to hire, to buy . . . are the things that are interesting or remarkable.
Another way of saying this is . . . "Average is for losers."
Do you waste time binge watching average shows on Netflix? Do you waste your time buying average products?
I don't think we do. Or if we do, those things aren't talked about and they don't develop a tribe of followers as the very best products do.
Examples -
People are rabidly passionate about Zappos. Everyone I meet has a damn Zappos story to tell. Whether it was their free shipping or their customer service or how happy the customers are, people will talk to you about Zappos. What about Famous Footwear? Exactly. Average products for average people and no one says a word about it.
People are passionate about Lexus. Their customer service and dealerships are top-notch. They have coffee bars set up that rival Starbucks. They have high speed wi-fi and large flat screen TVs and leather couches. Compare that to what you get at any of our local dealerships or any in Grand Forks or Fargo.
People are passionate about apple products. Their customers will freaking sleep out side to buy the latest iPhone when they can just wait a week and not have to wait in line at all. I've never seen anyone sleep on the street for a Motorola phone or a Toshiba computer.
When I was in New York, Coach Mumm and I walked past dozens of people sleeping in the street waiting for Hamilton tickets. One guy even had a sign that read "I'm not homeless. I just want Hamilton tickets." But why aren't they sleeping in line for other shows? Hamilton is remarkable and it's built a tribe of followers.
When Quentin Tarantino or Christopher Nolan releases a film, people go nuts. Even if it's a damn 3 hour western like Tarantino's The Hateful Eight or a mind-bending film like Inter-Stellar. People go nuts. They talk about it. They flock to it. They are part of a tribe. Contrast that with the latest Adam Sandler film (I didn't see a lot of people going nuts over Pixel - other than how bad it was - or Hotel Transylvania 2) or Kevin James film.
When students come back to visit teachers, who do they visit? They always seek out H and Froiland. Each of those teachers is remarkable in their own ways. They have built tribes and attract people that think like them and want to be remarkable like them.
Being remarkable is what matters. And it matters the most.
So what work will you do that will stand out? What traits will you develop that will make you stand out? That's what really matters. No one talks about how average you are or how you can just go about turning in your work on time and getting it done. Average is, indeed, for losers. If you want to be a Linchpin anyway. And why wouldn't you want to be one?
Although we have already watched this part of the video, I still love his analogy on baseball and our school system. We are good at learning something quick but not at truly understanding and retaining what we have learned. They throw a lot of information at us all at once and expect us to understand it better than the back of our hands. Their expectations for us are unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteThe information they are teaching us is nearly useless in the real world and most of the jobs that we will be going into, yet they make these courses seem like the most important things to learn. We, as students, try to do as little as possible to still get us a good grade because we know that as long as we get a passing grade we are fine.
Like he says with artists, they never ask to do less, they always want to do more. In our school work we want to do less because everyone else is doing less as well and it is normal.
I agree that we do bare minimal to get a passing grade in our classes. We are so overwhelmed by useless information we get as schoolwork that we cram just to pass on a test and then we forget about all the information. We do just enough to get a good grade and if we get a good grade we think we are fine. But we need to quit thinking grades are everything.
DeleteI also like the baseball analogy. Another angle this could be taken is that people aren't going to enjoy learning if facts are just thrown at them. Just like in baseball, you have to expose them to the game and get them to play. When I say this, I mean that people learn best by experience. The school system does not allow enough creativity and innovation. You have to give students the opportunity to problem solve and think for themselves in order to create extraordinary workers.
DeleteIn our school systems we are taught to be normal and to stick to normal, when they should be teaching us how to be different. They want us to fit in and be like our peers.
ReplyDeleteHe questions why we don't teach our kids to be interesting and to go figure things out on our own. We are so sheltered and obedient that most of us wouldn't even know how to start figuring things out. I don't even think most of us would have the guts to ask for help because we are trained to just follow the rules. Stick to the rules and fit in is all we are taught, along with a bunch of useless topics they have been drilling into our minds since day one.
This is very true. Instead of having boring schoolwork we should be having teachers that teach us important things. Help us lead and stand out. We need to learn interesting things, not things that are useless. School systems need to change so that more students can become linchpins.
DeleteI agree that school trains people to be standard "factory" workers. They don't train us to stand out, they train us to follow directions and complete tasks in a timely manner. School is all about preparing us for our future jobs, but they do an awful job at it. Unless our jobs consist of going to work and completing the same tasks everyday, students will not be prepared to enter the workforce. Memorizing facts is useless, and often times people lose that information the moment after the test is over. Standardized tests are pointless because they don't measure your knowledge, they measure how well you can memorize information, and how fast you can complete a task. Instead of this, schools should be focused on developing students' ability to create something new and problem solve. They should focus on the students' strengths and passions, then build on that.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Grace. I also think that school is doing an awful job at preparing us for our futures. Every day something different is going to happen every day, unless you just have a really boring job.
DeleteI completely agree with Godin's statements about famous colleges. Why should we pay more for the same degree? Why should we pay more to comply with the system? Brand names mean nothing. No one cares where you went to school, they care about your experiences. They care about your ability to apply your skills, not your ability to regurgitate information. I also think what he said about cooperation is important because great ideas don't just come from one person. It takes a team to set that idea into motion and create something extraordinary. Finally, the most import thing I took out of Godin's video is to be a life long learner. Ideas, practices, and technology are always changing. If you want to be a linchpin and set yourself above the standard, then you have to be constantly changing too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Grace. Brand names mean nothing, especially colleges. I know a lot of students who go to these huge universities/colleges that cost a lot of money (many of whom don't know what they are majoring in yet). Like you said, nobody cares where you go to school, they care about our experiences and skills. I am going to Northland after high school and I'm totally fine with it being a small school. The thing is, I'm going to get my generals out of the way and I'm going to save money at the same time, THEN continue on and transfer to a bigger school.
DeleteI find his suggestions at the 10:45 mark fascinating. When he puts these problems with our school system to the forefront it really hit me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with his #2 point - open book, open note, all the time. The school system today forces us to memorize stuff on a daily basis, and I would have to agree with Godin that this is wrong. If we are taught to memorize stuff in school it defeats the purpose of why we are really there - to learn. This isn't going to give us any learning experiences that we will need after schooling.
Totally agreed with you here. The school system is a block routine that teaches the same thing and forces us to attend it. We are forced to memorize things that we don't like or things that won't impact our life later on. We are punished for not being able to memorize certain things that teachers grade. It is a system that I believe we should change as well.
DeleteHis experiment he does at the 4:00 mark is funny, but the point he makes about it is very true. This experiment reminds me of my fellow JV basketball coach, James Stewart.
ReplyDeleteDuring practice when we are running sprints, he randomly yells out one of our names. If he yells someones name and they start running harder he blows his whistle to stop everyone and he says, "Why did you give more after I yelled your name? You should've been giving it your best the whole time".
I agree with Godin that the world teaches us to not give our best efforts all the time because then they are going to ask for more. Today, us as students, only do as little as possible. Most of us just try to get the easy A. That's what this system has led to and it doesn't push us.
I agree, we are taught to do our "best," but that isn't actually our best. I think we are afraid of giving too much and someone asking more of us when we don't want to give more. We are afraid of people having high expectations because that means more work. Another issue could be that we don't believe we have the potential to do better until it is asked of us.
DeleteI agree with this you shouldn't have to behold to give more. When someone tell you to give more you should already be at your max effort. Yes this is instilled in school we shoot for an A with are best effort we shouldn't have to be told to try a little harder
DeleteSchool kills the creativity inside (and outside) of us. When Godin made the statement that we are told to collect dots instead of connecting the dots, it made sense. Collecting dots a.k.a. information is more measurable by standardized tests than figuring out a way to test our problem solving skills (creativity).
ReplyDeleteSchools succeeds into killing our creative sense by trying to mold us into what they thinks is average. Teachers get reviewed on how well they are "teaching"...how do they know if they are teaching us well? Throwing a textbook at us and telling us to read it, memorize it, oh yeah, and there will be a test on it by tomorrow. Or ever better, how they base each of us on how well everyone is doing... we are all different and it's engraving a message into our mind that we shouldn't stick-out like a sore thumb.
I agree that school kills creativity. Standardized test forces kids to learn in a certain way. Some teachers jobs depend on how well the kids do on standardized tests. This forces the teacher to push kids more, by taking practice tests. Which cuts time out of art and kills the creativity of children.
DeleteI agree that school kills the creativity that is in all of us and few people within the school system actually care to help us express it. The Standardized test scares students and forces them to stress over the thought that they might fail. It forces everyone to think the same and tries to turn us into the same person.
DeleteYes, the school system does a very poor job on emphasizing creativity in it's overall form. If it really wanted to specialize, each student would be able to choose specific classes that tailor their skills to what they are passionate for or want to do. Instead, we are forced to follow a common set of educational requirements that force us to lose our identities. It's hard to create a unique product when the system wants uniformity, but I suppose that's why being a linchpin is so valuable and important.
DeleteSchool started out by a teacher making her students hammer a nail until they got it right. Although this teaches obedience which is a good thing, it shouldn't be what we are taught still as we grow older. yes its good for younger kids, but in high school we shouldn't be taught that obedience is so important.
ReplyDeleteWe need to be taught to speak up and be creative. Say what is on our mind and how we think. Being unique will make us into a linchpin. We cannot be afraid to put it all out there. We were taught to hold back but we should not be like that.
I agree with you, there is a certain level of obedience. I think there is too much emphasis put on obedience in elementary school and even still in high school. It is important for kids, regardless of age, to be creative and allowed to fail. School has taught us that you are not allowed to fail, and when you do, you’re punished for it. Schools don’t realize that failing helps us become more successful.
DeleteI agree that obedience is a straight line to fitting in and following the rules. I also agree that being obedient takes away our creativity, and forces us to act the same. We will never be able to become a linchpin if we stay obedient.
DeleteI definitely agree with him when he talks about the text book and the baseball examples. Nobody learns things about memorizing things from a text book. It's not fun. Or if you want to become a baseball expertise you don't want to have to take a test on the best players in history. The more work the less we do. If it is art we do more. Being creative is more fun. It brings out the best of us. When we do thing thats creative we like to do more of it, and we ask to do more.
ReplyDeleteSchool needs to teach us interesting things. We need to learn things that we like to learn about. That will help us be more creative and become a linchpin.
I agree, no one learns things when they have to memorize from a textbook. I think the analogy Godin uses is perfect for explaining his point. When there is more work, people do less. When we know that there is a test after we learn, it destroys the creativity linked to learning new things.
DeleteWhat is school for? School teaches us to be average, never to think outside the box or question what we are learning. We have been taught to hold back. In school we just do enough to get an A and nothing extra. Why, because school forces us to be one way. They only give us one way to solve a math problem, a standard way to write a paper, and a test that makes us memorize. I like when Godin uses the baseball analogy. When someone wants to learn about baseball you don’t teach them how to figure out batting averages or memorize the players. You take them to a game and let them experience baseball for themselves. Schools should focus more on the student’s creative ability; not from what a test saids. As Godin states, “When it is work we find a way to do less, when it is art we find a way to do more.”
ReplyDeleteI think Godin’s eight theories are very interesting. I like his second point of having open notes and open book for all test. Learning doesn’t include memorizing. We memorize things just to pass the test and after that we completely forget about it. Having open notes/book would take away the pressure to know everything and allow us to truly learn.
ReplyDeleteI also, agree with the last one. Famous colleges don’t matter. Why pay more and be more obedient for the same degree? Future employers are not going to hire you based on a school, they are going to hire you based on your skills.
I agree with you. I really like his idea of the open book tests. Also the pressure and stress put on kids expecially during finals week is ridiculous. They are expecting us to remember everything from the whole semester, be able to recall it correctly, and do this for four different classes all within a week. Every one does it but it is totally unnecessary.
DeleteOne of my former teachers believed that open note and open book tests were best for his students to learn. Sure, there could be cheating. If you cheated you would only be cheating yourself of knowledge that you probably will remember more, than if you were supposed to memorize it for a test. I think a majority of us forget almost everything that we learned after the exam is finished.
DeleteI agree that open book tests are the way to go. We only focus on what is relevant at the moment and once it is no longer worth a grade, we stop caring about that subject. Plus it takes a lot of the stress off of the students, there is no longer a need to lose sleep to cram the night before the test. Plus, in the real world we will have outside resources, it is ridiculous not to let us use any of our tools or our peers to collaborate with the way most people will in the real world.
DeleteI think Godin makes a good point about school being made to teach factory workers. School was made for students to learn how to be obedient and to behave. It was made for students to learn to behave and follow questions. School teaches us to be average. As students, we put forth just enough effort to get an A in a class. We cram information into our heads that we will forget as soon as we take a test or pass a class. Also, I agree with Godin when he explains the second of his eight theories. He explains about allowing students to only take open book/open note tests. Like I said before, what we memorize for a test, we forgot soon after. We waste time cramming for something that we will not benefit from in the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you just said. We don't need to know useless facts in order to be a good person. We worry way to much about school when in reality we should be focusing on where our passion is and what makes us happy. Many of us don't know what we want to do with the rest of our lives because we are too busy spending our time on the things that don't matter as much.
DeleteI really like how Godin says that "anything worth memorizing is worth looking up". I totally agree with him because instead of wasting our time studying useless facts that we most likely will ever need to know, we could be learning valuable life lessons. I know for myself that once I memorize terms and take the test everything I memorized completely disappears from my memory. I know some things we obviously need to know but most of that came from elementary school, not this point in our lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think Godin does make a good point when he says, "anything worth memorizing is worth looking up". It really is a waste of our time to spend time studying things that won't matter after we finish the class. It seems pointless since most things we memorize we will most likely never relate to our lives in the future.
DeleteI also really liked this line, and totally agree. I feel like that is what is happening more and more where students memorize information for a test so they can get the grade they need, but then forget everything they memorized. It doesn't help that a lot of it is useless facts we will probably never need to know in the future.
DeleteGodin has a great point when he talks about how if we wanted students to learn then why would we give students textbooks. Textbooks tear down creativity. Textbooks don’t encourage passion. Like stated in the video, people don’t walk into a book store to buy a textbook because they are really passionate about the subject and want to learn more.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Godin uses a baseball analogy in which I find to be very interesting. As he explains, if you want to teach someone about baseball you wouldn’t teach them and then expect them to take a test. I think he makes a very good point through this analogy.
The analogy that Godin uses is a very good comparison to our lives right now. We should be out in the real world facing things head on, not being stuck in a classroom all day long. If we want to be happy and learn things that we actually want to learn then we need to be experiencing those things now. I agree that we spend way to much time with our heads textbooks when we could be learning more about our our passion.
DeleteI also love the analogy he uses and also feel he makes a very good point. It's hard to be expected to become passionate about a subject when in order to learn about it you have to spend your time reading about it in a textbook or taking a test. Not many people enjoy taking tests, so it's hard to be passionate about something when you're constantly going to be tested how well you know it.
DeleteI agree with Godin's 2 myths that he closes with, especially the first one "great performance in school leads to happiness and success". That saying is used often and it is not necessarily true at all. Many people are very successful without going to college or getting any crazy type of education at all. A lot of people think they go to an ivy league school then they will automatically be successful. That is not always the case. Yeah it probably helps some people and maybe will make certain jobs available that aren't available to some. As long as you have a good mind set and push yourself to be the greatest at what you want to be then you are all set. You will make it to where you want to be and you will be happy.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you said about your mind set. That is what will set you apart from every one else and this could be a bad thing or a good thing. It's your choice. So why not choose the better life filled with joy and success.
DeleteAlso success is such broad term. Every one will have their own meaning of success for some it could be to make your gas station chain just a little bit better than the others. Or it could be to run a million dollar company. Neither one of these are wrong they are just different. So set your goal specifically for yourself, no one else and become a success.
I agree with this also, it is all about determination. If you want something so bad that it effects how you live. Odds are your going rise above to become amazing. College degree or not. You can still be successful based on your determination. Either your willing to go the extra mile for what you want.
DeleteI agree with Seth's opinions and like his modern view of education. Due to the creation of the internet, extensive knowledge is no longer required, and memorization is a thing of the past. Rather than that, employers are looking for workers with innovative ideas and the ability to critically think and use the resources at their disposal. Employment is no longer reliant on the mass storage of information, as technology can now do so for us. I believe our education system will be changing soon. We are currently in the midst of rapid technological advancement when compared to the rest of history. As our generation grows and takes our places in the workspace, we will change the old systems and establish new, more timely, techniques.
ReplyDeleteI agree that our education systems will change. I think that because student and even teachers are starting to realize that information that is given to us will never used in our future. We are noticing that we only remembering information because it's on the next test and if we don't remember it, it could impacts our grade. Even though higher end companies don't look at grades, instead they look at someone's creativity.
DeleteInstead of being asked to memorize and retain facts from four different classes and get tested on them each semester we should be given real world examples. They should be asking us to use skills that we will use in our real life. When in our life are we going to need to know how to measure the distance a comet is traveling over a ten year period. Never. But we learn it anyways, then we take a test, hope for a good grade and start the process all over again. I liked the baseball analogy, but also baseball is sport, which many people find very fun and interesting. Which makes us want to watch it more. Just like he said if it's art or creation we will do more for it. Assignments in class are just graded and it's based on who actually cared enough to do it that night, or who found the answer key online, and those things won't help us in life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying about students being forced to memorize and remember facts. In this day in age we have computers and smartphones to look up the answers anyways. We really don't need to know all of the information because we rely on technology so much anyways. When it comes right down to it most people will forget about what they memorized as soon as it is no longer worth a grade. I personally enjoy classes where there are multiple correct answers and I am encouraged to solve problems instead of just being given a bunch of stuff to remember.
DeleteI get where you're coming from and often think the same thing to myself. Why am I learning about the area and distance of shapes when I want to help people with their emotional issues when I am older? Most adults I talk to today say that they never learned to pay taxes, but instead learned about polynomials. This is why we shouldn't have to hire people to do our taxes, we should've learned in school, when we had the time.
DeleteI thought it was very interesting when he asked them all to raise their hand as high as they could. Then a little further, and everyone did. No one gave it their all on the first try. Weather that be because they are lazy, or they didn't want to look like they were trying too hard, or they didn't want to stand out. This is life. People are afraid. If they don't try enough they could get fired. If they try too much they could get unwanted attention. To me it's kind of a loose loose situation. It's hard to willingly put yourself out their for others to criticize.
ReplyDeleteI also liked his thought about open book test. Where it's more testing you on your organization and how prepared you are rather than who can memorize the most. Another thing I liked was why remember if you can look it up? Some people think that our generation depends on technology too much and how would we survive if one day it was all gone. Which to me those don't make sense. Why wouldn't we use the internet if it's a tool that is available to us? Also i doubt that the world is going to go dark anytime soon so I think we are safe. We could also argue that the older generation needs to learn more to keep up with the demand of certain jobs. It's all about the tools you have and how you choose to use them.
School is based on obedience, not creativity. Godin compares school to a factory, we are taught to be obedient and not to question why we are learning something because that questions someones authority. Although respect and being able to do what you are told is important, I think that teachers should be teaching students to be willing to stand out, do there absolute best and take creative risks instead of holding something back. We should be taught to be passionate, give it our all, and not be ostracized for being different.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that school is based on obedience. No one (especially teachers) likes to be questioned on why they are doing something their way. It's like you took a shot at their pride when you do it.
DeleteWe wouldn't be questioning teachers if the school would not only let us be creative and to let our freak flag fly, but to also let the teachers do that as well. Nothing is worse than being taught to be bland, unoriginal, and average. But yet, we still do it.
Seth Godin's baseball example stood out to me most. I believe the harder you work means the more you learn and the more you learn means the better you will do on tests. If you do well on on a test you are given more material to learn and be tested on, this is a never ending trap that most "good students" are stuck in. We are learning about something that we are not passionate about and then when we work hard, even if we are not interested, we are still forced to learn more because we tackled the first task. I believe that a lot of the time in school handwork can be mistaken for interest and passion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying. I think that if we change the way we learn things and stop taking test on subjects we are learning, kids will start to enjoy school more. When there are no test involved we are think more about the subject and how it relates to us instead of worrying if certain information will be on the next test.
DeleteI like how Godin doesn't seem to like the idea of doing things when there is no point. Especially this generation. I thought it was very true when he was talking about our school systems now. We have been trained to obey and do things we are told so that we can work at factory-like jobs when we get older as it talks about in the book. I think we should channel our inner artist to create things so we don't continue to waste our time on things that are of the past.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Godin on his idea that we don't know what good colleges are, but we know what famous colleges are. Those of us that decide to continue with post-secondary after high school can probably relate.
ReplyDeleteHarvard, Yale, and Brown are infamous schools, but for what? Sure they might have a few of the top professors in the world, but students are competing against roughly 8,000 others, and Northland is just as good.
IV league schools get a notorious rep of "if you get accepted it will change your life and you will be successful and happy". Ummm nope, instead you will be in more debt than a student who attended Northland, competing even harder to become a linchpin student, and oh yeah, you might figure out that college isn't your thing (dropping out with a lot of debt).
Let's be honest with ourselves, we are not paying to be obedient hard working students in college... we are paying for the brand on our resume.
I think this is very true. I've noticed when I'm at different appointments, the doctors certificates aren't from colleges that I've heard of and yet they became a doctor, etc. The point is, in the long run, it won't matter what college you went to. What matters, is your knowledge and passion for what you do.
DeleteI liked the idea he used when getting trying to get people interested in a subject. You aren't going to send a textbook home on a subject and expect them to be interested in it the next day. They are going to be annoyed that they have to read about it. This lead into how memorizing information is pointless. Why memorize when we can look it up? I also think we should be tested on real life experiences that we are interested in, and not tested on information we have to memorize that we don't care about or is not worth knowing. I think the school system were invented to benefit others, not the students who are actually in it.
ReplyDeleteThe two things I resonated with most both dealt with the information that we learn in school these days.
ReplyDeleteThe first being how we learn. I feel like students these days are so focused on getting through the classes or tests, they spend more time cramming then actually retaining the information. Whether it’s skimming the reading assignment or skipping right to the questions at the end, they are going to do the minimum to pass with a decent grade, it doesn’t matter if they remember it.
The second is the stuff we are being taught. I doubt I’m going to use anything I learned in Chemistry in the next 20 years, the same goes with math. We are forced to learn all these equations and formulas and so forth, when they don’t pertain to my career choice or many others. I feel I don’t need to know all this Chemistry stuff unless I’m going to be a chemist, or something similar. It’s useless information.
I love his quotes about teaching kids baseball. We don't make them study baseball and the smartest ones get to learn more baseball. You wouldn't get the right people to like the sport, and some people who would love to play wouldn't get the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteAnd second on why we should pay more for famous colleges. You are getting the same degree, doesn't matter if you go to Duke or Bemidji State. It's not about where you went it's about what your experiences are.
Very good point. Giving everyone the chance to play gives everyone a chance to develop a passion and even if they don't have all the talent, they may have a work ethic that will make them successful and compensate for the lack of talent.
DeleteI like where he talks about the school system and how they teach us to memorize things and how that is about the worst thing to do. Were there to learn not to memorize things. The drilling and drilling that they do is far to repetitive. I believe either you decide to learn it or you don't.
ReplyDeleteSecond the higher up college's shouldn't be any different in cost the fact the name of the college matters. It should all be about your experience while your there that makes it worth it. The bigger colleges you could have an awful experience and hate it. Well sad thing is is that there is way more money down the drain.
The problem I see with memorization is that we don't even care about most of what we memorize. If we cared deeply about something, maybe we'd memorize important things to us on our own time. What is the point when someone else has us do it. Instead, we should learn what we care about, everything else could almost be seen as pointless. And yes, most material is aprroached with the idea of "I don't want to learn this so I won't"
DeleteOne thing that stood out to me was when he said that schools teach us how to respect and how to be obedient. I think that this is still true. We go to school and we do whatever we are being told because we've been taught to follow instructions of what the teacher is saying. We never want to do something different from what the teacher told us to do because we don't know what will happen if we don't follow the rules.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that stands out to me is when he says that people always want to aways being doing art and people never want to do work. I think people need to find a job where you are able to do your art in that job. Then more people will start enjoying their jobs more and always want to be working because it is also their art. There would much more creativity in jobs if people were able to do art for their jobs.
Obedience is the key part with how cogs are made, which is what the education system is doing. Cogs don't ask questions or try new things that might be better. Like machines, all they do is listen. The fact that this is still going on is what will hurt us more later. If they made us more like artist, we would be less like machines and better off in the job world.
DeleteGodin is very good at pointing out the problems with the education system. This does not mean the education system should not exist, he just wants it to be redesigned. He sees the early days of the education system, from over a hundred years ago, better than what it is today. It used to be made up of dedicated individual teachers that would use their skills to teach children through art. Now, it is a system made up of standardized tests and textbooks designed to prepare children to work in factories. Godin's idea of how to fix the system is a little radical, but according to him, it's the best way to make the world better. He wants it to be universal and more individual discovery based. I think this would work very well, but it will not be an change.
ReplyDeleteWhen Godin mentions his baseball analogy, I see the truth in it. I think the reason why education works with so much memorization and boring information is because it is trying to make experts out of students instead of passionate people. An expert is very different from someone who cares deeply about the same subject. Someone might be an expert at making cheeseburgers, but if they work in the fast food industry, they are not passionate. If they were, they would be a head chef at an upscale restaurant. Why make someone an expert instead of making them passionate? Because a cog who is an expert will more easily accept their position instead of challenging it. The passionate person, or linchpin, will take their passions far and make something better out of it. Factories love people who are good at something, but they don't care about if they are passionate because there are way more experts to replace them with.
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