Common Core – Standardized Reality and the Slow Kill of Divergent Thinking
‘We’ve come a long way in education since the 1960s, but not necessarily in a positive direction. The psychologist J.P. Guilford once drew a distinction between two forms of thinking: convergent and divergent. One produces alternative theories, creative ideas, and useful solutions, the other, the dogmatization of information and a ‘single’ correct answer which can be force-fed to students on standardized tests and in common core classrooms.
Divergent thinking is done by a mind that is turned ‘on’ and engaged in the constant questioning of reality, instead of passively ‘dumbed down’ by rote solutions force-fed through memorization and shallow learning. Divergent thinking creates fantastical worlds such as those imagined by the likes of Nikola Tesla, Buckminster Fuller, Beethoven, Einstein, Pythagorus, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marina Abramovic, and similar personalities.
Standardized education in America causes the slow death of divergent thinking, in its aim to create psychologically muted and Pavlovian-trained followers who won’t buck the system.’
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