A Conceptual Kind of Gal: A Phoenix Out of the Ashes of the L-Brain Pyre
(Ok, my subject line is a bit over-dramatic, but that's me!)
I guess I've always known I was not destined to suceed financially in the L-brained, automated, computerized, fast-paced, business oriented world. I've always enjoyed writing fiction and poetry. I loved acting, performing, speech making, music, arts and crafts. My best and favorite subjects in school were Language Arts and Art. Unfortunately in the late 70s, the subjects to love were math and computers; that was my brother's forte. He got in at just the right time! His college career was stellarly L-Brained. He graduated magna cum laude with a double major - Math and Computer Science. (I however, earned a Master's Degree. Turns out, big whoop!) He got great, high-paying, high-demand jobs. He started his own companies. In the 90s he developed the first web-based medical information management software company which he and his sole partner eventually sold in a multi-million dollar deal. Yeh. R-Brainers ruled the world! (Do I sound bitter? Yeh! But I don't resent my brother! I feel in the 70s, when I was told I could have everything - the home, the family, the career, and the pay - I was lied to. But that's more the subject of my first post!)
Ah, but in reading Pink's second chapter I almost feel that my vindication will come (hopefully before I am too old to enjoy it!). Maybe there will be a demand for my brilliantly creative ideas on the solution to the plight of American education, or for my vision of an Unschool School. Maybe somehow those evenings kicking around some clever tale of some creative way to make money with my arts and crafts will come to fruition. I can conceive of the ideas; I am just not the one to make a "business" plan, market it, prototype it, or even find a way to finance it. That's all too L-Brain for me! But Pink gives me hope!
The second chapter in Pink's book solidifies my views. First, as a school-aged child of the decade of the 70s, I bought into the be good, go to school, go to college, get a good job and you will have the American Dream fairy tale, hook-line-and sinker. Now, 30 years later, I feel I was lied to. I went to that factory called school. I was popped out as a top-honors, college-bound post-SAT graduate, ready to face and change the world. I was full of promise with lots of opportunity. I went to college, got a higher degree, became a teacher and went right back into that factory to pop out more post-SAT robots. Unfortunately, that factory was obsolete trying to continue status-quo in a very different society. Evidently, a higher degree in the sciences was not enough. (I, unfortunately, a R-Brainer before there was a name or philosophy related to it) had chosen a career that was nowhere in the world of abundance and automation left after the 70s. Abundance was everywhere, material items were cheap and disposable and I still wasn't earning enough to afford this cheap, shallow American Dream. The more I taught in the American public school, the more I knew I wanted to homeschool my own children. I didn't want my kids to become mere monkeys trained to perform the tricks that would get them high SAT scores that would no longer ensure admittance into a good, high-status (and priced) university or secure a professional, high-paying career.
In the decades that followed, Pink describes the road taking a turn. It had to go somewhere else. There had to be something else since the old road did not lead to the promised pot of gold. Education began slowly following suit with the advent of charter schools. Of course any change of status quo is slow and difficult, as my Einstein experience proved financially devastating, but the rainbow is showing again. I see education becoming more focused on R-Brain thinking; education is recognizing once again the importance of arts, humanities, individuality and creativity. Already colleges are no longer solely relying on results of the subjective SAT as an indicator of, well, anything about a potential matriculating student. Concrete, tangible items and buildings are no longer seen as the sole tools to learning; educators, legislators, parents are conceptualizing more actualized methods and means to learning. The zenith of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs may now be more attainable.
I feel like I fit more into the philosophies emerging in Pink's "Conceptual Age."
Yes, Virginia, I am still reading this book. Life and work have gotten in the way of my blogging about it. I still find I am in complete agreement with Pink about this. I am still waiting for the ah ha moments, not forthcoming. So where DO we go from here?
A Conceptual Kind of Gal: A Phoenix Out of the Ashes of the L-Brain Pyre
ReplyDelete(Ok, my subject line is a bit over-dramatic, but that's me!)
I guess I've always known I was not destined to suceed financially in the L-brained, automated, computerized, fast-paced, business oriented world. I've always enjoyed writing fiction and poetry. I loved acting, performing, speech making, music, arts and crafts. My best and favorite subjects in school were Language Arts and Art. Unfortunately in the late 70s, the subjects to love were math and computers; that was my brother's forte. He got in at just the right time! His college career was stellarly L-Brained. He graduated magna cum laude with a double major - Math and Computer Science. (I however, earned a Master's Degree. Turns out, big whoop!) He got great, high-paying, high-demand jobs. He started his own companies. In the 90s he developed the first web-based medical information management software company which he and his sole partner eventually sold in a multi-million dollar deal. Yeh. R-Brainers ruled the world! (Do I sound bitter? Yeh! But I don't resent my brother! I feel in the 70s, when I was told I could have everything - the home, the family, the career, and the pay - I was lied to. But that's more the subject of my first post!)
Ah, but in reading Pink's second chapter I almost feel that my vindication will come (hopefully before I am too old to enjoy it!). Maybe there will be a demand for my brilliantly creative ideas on the solution to the plight of American education, or for my vision of an Unschool School. Maybe somehow those evenings kicking around some clever tale of some creative way to make money with my arts and crafts will come to fruition. I can conceive of the ideas; I am just not the one to make a "business" plan, market it, prototype it, or even find a way to finance it. That's all too L-Brain for me! But Pink gives me hope!
I'm ready to read on!
A Product of the 70s SAT-ocracy Speaks Out
ReplyDeleteThe second chapter in Pink's book solidifies my views. First, as a school-aged child of the decade of the 70s, I bought into the be good, go to school, go to college, get a good job and you will have the American Dream fairy tale, hook-line-and sinker. Now, 30 years later, I feel I was lied to. I went to that factory called school. I was popped out as a top-honors, college-bound post-SAT graduate, ready to face and change the world. I was full of promise with lots of opportunity. I went to college, got a higher degree, became a teacher and went right back into that factory to pop out more post-SAT robots. Unfortunately, that factory was obsolete trying to continue status-quo in a very different society. Evidently, a higher degree in the sciences was not enough. (I, unfortunately, a R-Brainer before there was a name or philosophy related to it) had chosen a career that was nowhere in the world of abundance and automation left after the 70s. Abundance was everywhere, material items were cheap and disposable and I still wasn't earning enough to afford this cheap, shallow American Dream. The more I taught in the American public school, the more I knew I wanted to homeschool my own children. I didn't want my kids to become mere monkeys trained to perform the tricks that would get them high SAT scores that would no longer ensure admittance into a good, high-status (and priced) university or secure a professional, high-paying career.
In the decades that followed, Pink describes the road taking a turn. It had to go somewhere else. There had to be something else since the old road did not lead to the promised pot of gold. Education began slowly following suit with the advent of charter schools. Of course any change of status quo is slow and difficult, as my Einstein experience proved financially devastating, but the rainbow is showing again. I see education becoming more focused on R-Brain thinking; education is recognizing once again the importance of arts, humanities, individuality and creativity. Already colleges are no longer solely relying on results of the subjective SAT as an indicator of, well, anything about a potential matriculating student. Concrete, tangible items and buildings are no longer seen as the sole tools to learning; educators, legislators, parents are conceptualizing more actualized methods and means to learning. The zenith of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs may now be more attainable.
I feel like I fit more into the philosophies emerging in Pink's "Conceptual Age."
Yes, Virginia, I am still reading this book. Life and work have gotten in the way of my blogging about it.
ReplyDeleteI still find I am in complete agreement with Pink about this. I am still waiting for the ah ha moments, not forthcoming.
So where DO we go from here?