RS 5 Sir Ken Robinson and Creativity

This blog post is my take on the video “Ted Talks” by Sir Ken Robinson. This video was filmed in 2006 when he speaks on behalf of the issue of schools killing creativity.

This article was fascinating. Sir Ken Robinson was not only a joy to watch as he makes great, funny points, but says so in a way that makes so much sense and educates us on topics that are not thought about in today’s world. The main topic he talks about are on education and how it squashes today’s creativity of rising students. Robinson states that as a child, kids are not afraid of being wrong. They will take a chance and are not afraid to give their own creative answer. Unfortunately, the way this education system is based, it is how Robinson says “Educating people out of their creativity.”

 

The education system is based solely off academic ability and the most useful subjects for work. This system was made in the 1900’s based of industrialism. Now that times have changed, Robinson strongly argues that we must reconsider the way we teach. Children that have interests in music and want to be a musician, are told simply that this is not possible and to choose a different career path. This education system is also mainly based off university entrance. The universities set standards to get in and the education system is shaped to fit the needs of the entrance to these universities. This is a terrible way to look at things and I could not agree more.

Intelligence is not just being book smart but it is being smart all around your body. It is diverse kinesthetically and also shown through interactions that go on in our human brain. An example which really supports this way of thinking is the dancer girl, Gillian Lynne, who was having trouble in school and could not do her work. Here many would say that she just doesn’t care or since she is having trouble sitting still she has ADHD. However, as she sees a specialist her mother finds out that “she is not sick, she’s a dancer.” This just shows how limited this education system really is that people are viewed as “sick” just because they think differently than others sitting at a desk to learn.

Sir Ken Robinson makes so many valid points to why we should reconsider our education system. He states that creativity, “the process of having original ideas that have values,” will be stripped of the earth unless we rethink the fundamentals that we teach. Mathematics, language, and humanities all play a major part but so should the other arts that greatly contribute to creativity. I agree with Robinson completely that we need to use our imagination as a major focus and educate our whole human being rather than from just the neck up.

 

 

 
 

 

RS 4: Would You Let a Coin Toss Decide Your Future? A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast

This blog post is my take on the podcast “Would You Let a Coin Toss Decide Your Future?” This podcast appeared on the Freakonomics Radio Podcast website January 31, 2013.

            I found this article extremely interesting and agree with many points of the experiment. It is very true that many people, including myself, can be very indecisive at times. Whether we are making decisions on the margin of something really big or simply what to have for dinner it seems we can never make the “right” decision. This is because when it comes to decisions they really impact our life. Choosing one thing from another will make our lives different in a certain way. However, the very important decisions are the ones people often cannot decide and wastes precious time you have where you could being doing other things, or opportunity cost. We are afraid to make these decisions because the important ones will impact our lives greatly for the better or for the worse; us as individuals don’t want to feel regret knowing that we made the wrong decision or what could have been.

I think this experiment is a great idea and will really help people in their decision making. I for one often use a coin for small decisions nothing to serious, but for big decisions I am the hesitant ones. I feel that this experiment is great because it does not have just a coin to flip, you must answer questions that will really make you think out your decision and situation for example, if you were thinking of leaving a job. These questions are very thought provoking and then if you are still not sure, then you are able to flip a coin. I think it’s great because of the thought provoking questions so people really learn whether they can figure it out on their own or not.

I personally would not put my future on the flip of the coin. Although the podcasts talks about how people really are hurt by the indecisiveness and time wasted thinking out these decisions I would not use this for a really life changing decision. There can be a lot learned from this experiment and those who can never make a decision by themselves will feel great about it and as the experimenter Steven Dubner explains people don’t want to feel regret and knowing you didn’t make the decision makes people feel less regret about not choosing their other option. This experiment page has everything from “should I get a tattoo?” to “Should I quit my job?”. If people really use this and it helps them in making decisions than I think that this is a great tool. However, relating to efficiency this isn’t the most efficient way to go about doing things, but these thought provoking questions make you think about if what you are considering is a smart decision and something you really want to do.

RS 3: Episode 238: Making Christmas More Joyful, And More Efficient

This blog post is my reaction to the news broadcast “Episode 238: Making Christmas More Joyful, And More Efficient” from the website Planet Money in the month December of 2010.

I agree and disagree with many points in this podcast. You cannot blame the author Joe Waldfogel of his book Scroogenomics, stating that the act of gift giving is very inefficient. As we learn from the podcast, during the Christmas time there are many cases of dead weight loss. This dead weight loss is similar to the rule of economics that values are subjective. What is worth something to one person isn’t necessarily worth the same to someone else. Gift giving on average in the US around the Christmas season wastes $13 billion in value of these resources that gifts are not used. This is very inefficient and is seen all the time that people buy gifts just to give them not completely sure how the other person will value it.

When you look at the season of Christmas, it ruins the whole spirit that people, regardless of what they get, should be thankful for what they have. However, you cannot blame economists for seeing this as a problem because when one sees a problem that causes inefficiency, one wants to correct this problem. When we learn of the podcasters experiment with the candy bars they correct the inefficiency by letting the children trade. Here the total wealth increases from the previous 50 average to a total wealth of 82. This creates much more happiness in the room without the need for using any resources. This shows efficiency because we maximized the happiness with the resources (10 candy bars) that they had.

This podcasts displays the important of trade and how efficient it really is. It allows no more “stuff” just more happiness letting what some were not happy with, be happy because they got what was of the highest value to them. As kids were interviewed about gifts they had received for Christmas, many were displeased with the items they received because the gifts had more value. This happened a lot to me in the past and it was not that I was ungrateful for people thinking about me, it was just I really had no use for some of these things others valued much higher than I did. However, it is a good thing that many places have lenient return policies and people give the gifts with the receipt so it may be returned, so resources do not get entirely wasted.

Looking at it from the side of Christmas spirit, this isn’t really what the holidays are about and I can see why many people can get mad when one says that gift giving is inefficient. However, looking at this from the economists side gift giving is very inefficient many times and that people value their gifts differently so trading them for something else or trading them back in the store to buy something else they like maximizes the efficiency so there isn’t as much waste.