The Essential School Sucks, #5 of 50
Theme One: The Real Problems With Public School
Dr. Peter Gray was a research professor of psychology at Boston College, and author of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (https://amzn.to/3sJOtcu). Peter serves on the Organizing team for the Alliance of Self-Directed-Education. He also runs a blog on Psychology Today called Freedom to Learn, where he regularly explains and promotes self-directed education from a variety of angles.
Today Peter and I discuss creativity and critical thinking - two skills we agree are left underdeveloped (or even damaged) by public school and college.
On critical thinking, Peter has referenced studies and surveys that reveal about 50% of employers are dissatisfied with entry-level, college graduate employees (PayScale Inc.) and that college does little to improve higher level thinking (Academically Adrift: Limited Learning On College Campuses - 2011).
On creativity, Peter wrote a piece called As Children’s Freedom Has Declined, So Has Their Creativity. Peter informs us that there are actually quantitative studies, including the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, that show a marked decline in children's creative capacity since the 1980s. We discuss the causes of this decline in detail.
We finish with a friendly disagreement (then agreement) on the educational merits of video games.
In part one we discussed the biological foundations of self-education. LISTEN HERE (https://www.patreon.com/posts/podcast-542-gray-16951940)
In part three we'll talk about Peter's vision for self-directed education in the future. LISTEN HERE (https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/schoolsucks/episodes/2018-02-16T07_4…)
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Originally Released February 13, 2018 As "[PODCAST #543] Peter Gray (Part Two) – School’s Impact On Creativity and Critical Thinking"
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