Divergent Thinking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tnOnaKHZ3_k#!


Thomas Tallis

How many uses can you find for a paper clip?

The numbers go down as a person ages.  Why?

Assertion:  it's the schools because they teach there is only one answer.

Sounds like a beat up on schools concept.    Use a little divergent thinking.

Critics condemn this particular argument, despite its common sense perspective.  It sounds simple enough because people stop actively imaginative as they age, partly because of the imposition of reality upon their thought process, but the correlation to prove the accountability of the American education system is simply bizarre.  Throwing sand into the air is not the cause of the wind.

What I particularly see:

If we can come up with hundreds of alternative uses for a paper clip, how does this make the world better?  Divergent thinking, as valuable as it is, does not necessarily have enough direction to it to make it the primary learning method for the school system.  Adults have a strong ability to dismiss useless mind trips.

The positive thing that I see in the argument is that men can let go of timeworn traditions followed only because they have never really been questioned.