For this term in Civic Engagements, one of the main things we looked at was: How do we inspire autonomy due to the failed public education system?
We want our audience to realize that the current education system was designed and conceived for a different age. The initial idea of creating public schools, which is paid for by taxation was a revolutionary idea. This is deeply rooted in the public school system that there are only two types of people: academic and nonacademic, intelligent people and unintelligent people. The concept of this idea has influenced many brilliant people to think differently because they are being judged against this particular view of the mind. Education is modeled on the interest of industrialisation and the image of it. For example, schools are organized in a factory line, with ringing bells, separate facilities, and many more (RSA animate). We still educate students by batches. Why do we assume that the only thing common with students is their age?
Divergent thinking is the ability to interpret a question. It is the ability to find multiple answers to a question. By comparing scores with kindergarteners this exercise will help us demonstrate that once you have been “educated”; you may lose your ability to think creatively and depending on the type of education you received. In public schools, we are taught that there is only one answer to a question and perceived as sponges that soak information from books, instead of experiencing it for ourselves. There is no creative thinking in this process.
There are many ways we can solve this problem. We have to reinforce art programs, decrease quantity and increase quality in our standardized tests. The reason why is that when taking part in the arts we have an aesthetic experience, meaning all of your senses are operating at their peak.
The purpose of the divergent thinking test is to demonstrate that the more education you receive from this broken system, it is more likely that you lose your ability to think creatively.
The purpose of this lesson plan is to support and inspire autonomy for youth in a city where resources are few.Our targeted audience are the youths and their families.How?
At the end of this lesson participants will have taken a mini divergent thinking test, and compared scores taken by kindergarteners.The ulterior motive is to get the participants thinking about their results.The main purpose of comparing test score with previous younger testers is to show that public schools may have failed to educate their students in a multitude of ways.How much/how many?
For this lesson we will need:
A divergent test
A list of statistics for comparison
When/Where?
Next Thursday from 10-2:30 Time limit: 10 minutes
What?
1. Intro
Definition of Autonomy {2:00 minutes}
2.Divergent thinking test {1:30}
Compare scores by looking at results from kids. {1:00}
3.Discussion {5:30} questions
Please view our video on Autonomy!