...now that you have made it to campus and are settling into your life at Allegheny, it's a great time to STOP and think about why you are here. Over the course of the semester, we will focus on writing and speaking, study skills and time management, and on all the great opportunities that await you at our institution.
However, only you can answer the question of why you are here and what you want to get from this experience. You may think it is way too early to have the answer to these questions, and you would be right....but, it is not to early to start to ask those questions. If you keep waiting for the time when you are ready to answer them, you will quickly find yourself at the end of your four years at Allegheny wondering what is next.
Asking the questions and keeping them in mind will be easier at some points than others, but every once in a while, I'll remind you to stop and reflect. And soon, you will start to have some clues that will lead you in the right direction.
So...here is my first reminder. As part of that reminder, I'd like you to think about what your education is for, what it is worth, and how you want to participate in the process. In his TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson reflects on the importance of creativity in learning. He reminds us that, "Kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go...they're not frightened of being wrong...If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original. If you're not prepared to be wrong."
Watch Robinson's talk and think about how you can be creative during your time at Allegheny and whether or not you are prepared to be wrong...
Robinson shares many innovative, pehaps uncomfortable, thoughts with his audience. Some food for thought from the talk...
- Why do we stigmatize mistakes? Have you ever kept yourself out of a classroom conversation because you were afraind of being wrong or not saying something "important" enough?
- How do we define academic ability? Robinson argues that many, "highly talented, brilliant people think they're not." Why is that?
- What is academic inflation? What is the worth of degrees these days? How can you make yours count?
- "You'll never get a job doing that." Is this benign advice? Have you considered this advice when selecting your major?
- Robinson argues that we need to "educate the whole being" and to stop "educating people out of their creative capacities." How do you think we can do this in our class? How might you do this across your time at Allegheny?
- Robinson argues intelligence is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. In the past, how did you define intelligence? How would you define it now?
Comments (1)
This is a great speech! And he's a funny guy to boot.
"And stop talking like that. It's confusing everybody."
And he's right about creativity being trained out of us. If you look at children's drawings, they have PERFECT composition. It took me a year of intensive art training to be able to do that (again).
And I'm kind of jealous of your freshman. They get to be in your FS on storytelling and I don't.
Posted by Tamara Belden | August 25, 2008 4:57 PM
Posted on August 25, 2008 16:57