Gardner (2008) stresses the importance of the disciplined mind, and I believe that it is Gardner's focus on this mind that makes Five Minds for the Future a more well-rounded and applicable book than, perhaps, Pink's A Whole New Mind. I feel that mastering, or at least having thorough knowledge of a discipline must come before and work as the foundation for synthesis, creativity, and the like.
In my opinion, it is more fun to teach students to be creative and to synthesize, and more of a grind to teach a discipline. However, it is important that I not neglect the disciplined mind, because students need a context in which to be creative. Without the context and without being grounded in a discipline, student run the risk of just being creative and having no place to apply their creativity.
5 comments:
We have a huge job on our hands, don't we Ben? It is tricky to find that perfect balance, yet so important.
I agree. It seems to be a societal issue...somehow the word "disciplined" has come to mean something bad. It is like we take it as a personal afront to our independence. Without it though, no one will know enough about any particular field so as to be able to be creative in that field. Gardner talks about only being creative if you are able to impact a field and the creation is recognized as creative by the field...without a pretty disciplined knowledge of the field...creativitiy might not occur.
Your thoughts about undisciplined creativity remind me of my small sons deciding to "create" by cooking without a recipe. We all had to eat the creation (the love of parents is a wonderful thing). Frameworks, or discipline, is a wonderful scaffold on which to build constructive, productive, creativity. Even the Renaissance artists used their engineering and mathematical skills to give form and meaning to their paintings.
Ben,
I could not agree with you more. If students cannot establish a foundation in at least one discipline, they cannot ever hope to be truly interdisciplinary as Gardner describes. I'm sure my bias about this topic comes from my background in English. As a department chair, if possible, I always hire instructors who have degrees in the pure discipline they want to teach rather than a master's degree in something else and 18 hours in the discipline they want to teach. I can say that because on the flip side, I have 18 hours in sociology and teach it in addition to English. When I compare my knowledge of English to my knowledge of sociology, I can tell you that 18 hours does not make one a master in the field as compared to holding the actual degree in the discipline.
I agree with you as well Ben. We as teachers have to find a way to integrate the two - discipline along with creativity. If we do not teach our students the value of being disciplined students (as well as in life in general) their futures, our futures would appear bleek.
Very nice post!!!!
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