1. Robinson defines creativity as the provision of "original ideas that have value." In the last line of "Blue Collar Brilliance," Mike Rose writes, "Affirmation of diverse intelligence is not a retreat to a softhearted definition of the mind." What do you think Rose means here? In "How to Think not What to Think" from Unit 2, how does Richardson distinguish between expressiveness and creativity?
2. Robinson laments the "benign" but "profoundly mistaken advice" many receive to discourage their artistic passion in deference to stereotypes of industrialism. In your experience, did this crushing capitalist pragmatism suppress a passion or did you find new outlets and times to indulge that creative drive? Hobbies are luxuries of time and resources, but are you able to maintain a particular activity you are passionate about?
3. Too many academic assignments are reflective or strictly mnemonic rather than analytical and tactical. An effective exercise should produce a competitive stimulation of creative play and an exposure to practice new tactics and epistemologies. Picasso once said, "I don't care who influences me as long as it is not myself." While much currency is placed on relatability in education and media, a diversity of epistemologies produces more expansive ontologies. Education, art and literature are repositories of vicarious human experience that broaden the reflections emanating from the cesspool of the self and can entertain a new confluence of ideas. It would be self centered narcissism to only consume media that reminds or relates to oneself. Given these considerations, how might we distinguish between expressiveness and creativity? How could we actually execute Richard's and Robinson's advice for the school system? How can we move beyond unproductive assignments of expressiveness and towards valuable problem solving? For our illogical presentations, we exercised a form of creative free play when we generated scenarios that could facilitate a persuasive appeal with a demonstrated awareness of our own faulty reasoning while practicing our rhetorical strategies and public speaking. The Fake News Project is a similar design as you will be playing a fake news reporter. How can schools create creativity? How might you construct an educational exercise with these values in mind?
4. Citing from any of the Unit 3 course texts, what are some strategies for improving one's own metacognition? What metacognitive strategies or processes have you adopted to regulate your own learning?
5. Citing from any of the Unit 3 course texts, in particular, "We're all Confident Idiots", what are some strategies for sharing "bad news", particularly in the workplace, for information people are resistant to?
6. Define: a.) Sacrosanct egoism b.) in group psychology c.) agnotology d.) confirmation bias e.) The Dunning Kruger Effect f.) moral reframing g.) Socratic method