Do Chinese schools kill creativity double time?

I’ve posted some videos and an article here and there surrounding the theme of Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED Conference keynote – “Do Schools Kill Creativity.”

With regards to that, I think Chinese schools kill creativity on overdrive, triple-time and with a C-word sense of duty.

Doing more and being better at killing creativity.

First, there’s tons more meaningless, repetitive, drill work in Chinese schools. I cannot believe my eyes that students copy word for word (words they don’t understand, sometimes) off a textbook.

Why School is Bad for you

I’ve now crossed the threshold from the Innovator’s Dilemma to being able to confidently be like the flight attendant that gestures and says, “This way please to the exit……stay calm but hurry up.”

Hey, nothing to worry about. It’s just the Plane of Education System crashing. No need to hurry. Take your time. They’ve still got fuel (government spending) even though both engines are out. There aren’t going to be enough parachutes for everyone but that’s OK….stay buckled in your seat, like how schools have taught you to just sit down and be a good little boy or girl.

I’m filing this under Thomas Frey’s Future of Education because I plan to bring everything I am coming across which supports the ideas outlined in his paper under one theme.

I hope I have convinced you to get your copy and make at least 5 other people get it too! (I have 2 at least count.) And if you do, please tell me about it so we can share the experience together.

Here are excerpts taken from Ken Robinson’s THE ELEMENT – HOW FINDING YOUR PASSION CHANGES EVERYTHING. Picture for illustration only.

Investing in our Children’s Education – Part 2

I wonder if anyone reading the previous blog would have taken it out of context. Well, the fault lies in me because I assumed readers would know I was talking from the premise of the average parent that sends their child to public schools.

If I had a choice to invest time, money and effort in a speculative way or a productive way….guess which choice I’d make? A sound investment is one that takes in good info, sound fundamentals and smart models of calculation to arrive at a logical investment strategy.

All of us are investors, one way or another. By the choices we make in our lives, we’ve investing in a creation or destruction of a worldview or way of living. There is no escaping the fact that we invest in every aspect of life and since we are organic and not mineral forms of life, we either evolve or devolve.

Investing in our Children’s Education – Part 1

This is part 1 of 2 of what I think is a gravely misinformed idea most parents have about  investing in their children’s future. Part 2 can be read here.

There are several things parents need to be aware of when thinking along the lines of ‘investing in education’. ‘SAVING’ money in some kind of fund is not a form of investment, it is a form of saving, and when today’s socialnomics rules have changed, savers are losers.

An investment in something means that the amount we will reap will be many times the principle amount we invested. For instance, if we spend an average of $300 a month on books, uniform, transportation, school fees, tuition fees, school activities, etc over the course of 11 years, that would total (give and take) $50,000 once you factor in inflation and a devaluation of currency….