All of the characters in our little documentary struck some chord with me. The blonde from Indianapolis struck a sour one. The fact that her favorite word seemed to be "awesome," annoying enough, proved to be just the start of it.
As she rattled on about what an awesome feeling it is to "help people," I couldn't help but recall the words of a friend of mine, a man who is an M.D. When he interviewed for med school, the professors asked him one question, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" He said, "I like to cut stuff open and figure out how things work." That was one of the two right answers. The other was, "I want to make a lot of money."
The professors saw a desire to "help people" as a rather flimsy motivation--but greed and curiosity can be counted on.
Greed is a human given. My question is, are we seeing curiosity in our students? How can we foster such a motivation?
(My question also dovetails nicely into the riddle we encountered with last summer's reading, namely, how do we teach/ foster creativity?)
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2 comments:
This may sound mean-spirited, but I honestly hope that girl never becomes a doctor. Fortunately, I have a hard time believing she can make it through med school.
Your question about fostering curiosity and creativity is, I think, a part of our challenge of how to give America a kick in its complacency. How does one go about fostering curiosity and creativity in kids who are not only used to being constantly entertained, but actually view it as a necessity to which they are entitled?
I have some ideas, though obviously not all the answers. But I'll put them in another post.
I would be intersted in your ideas to foster curiosity and creativity as Shawn and I hope to revise the Senior Exhibiton this summer to emphasize those attributes. At least we will attempt to....
Dick
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