Education's Role in a Community

When searching Youtube videos of Jaron Lanier speaking, one video caught my attention more than others. The video features Lanier speaking about the importance of creativity in education, a point which I believe the modern public school curriculum has effectively ignored. The problem stems from an infusion of technology into the school system. Modern consumer technology focuses on consumption more than creation, and this is reflected in our public high schools. When students are watching youtube videos to learn rather than creating them, or reading articles rather than writing them, or being tested with an exam rather than a project, they are learning a strict consumption based educational model, which focuses on consuming and regurgitating information, rather than digesting and reflecting upon it.

In this video, Lanier speaks on the importance of preserving creativity in education. By doing so, we can resume the creation of dynamic-minded individuals who are used to digesting information, rather than simply consuming it. Unfortunately, it appears as though we may be becoming 'locked-in' to our current state of mind, and this could prove to be a problem for the future of individuality.