[extropy-chat] it's all understandable, except

[Robin Hanson]

At 06:59 PM 11/4/2006, Ben Goertzel wrote:
>my daughter is in a magnet elementary school that is pretty
>academically intensive but does little to allow let alone encourage
>independent thought....  Of course, my kids will all grow up as
>creative and independent thinkers anyway -- they spend a fair bit
>of their non-school time reading, and doing creative projects....
>But I still think it sucks that they have to spend such a significant
>fraction of their time in such a boring, mind-numbing environment.
>I did it too, during my childhood, and I thought it sucked at the time.
>It is survivable of course ... but why should this sort of ordeal be
>necessary?

Schools perform many functions, and the function of promoting
creative independent thinkers may have a pretty low priority.
It seems to me that most jobs in our economy require a bit less
creativity and independence than most humans would naturally
exercise without schooling.   So perhaps schools train and select
people for the mostly boring and mind-numbing world of work.



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323