What knowledge has the most worth? Zhao, Y.

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Zhao, Y. (2008).  What knowledge has the most worth?  The School Administrator.  February, 20-26.

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An outstanding article relating how America can and should continue to flourish in a global economy—by continuing to nurture more right-brained thinkers—in short to breed creativity.  Clearly, based on the fact that much of East Asian development has been done on the backs of Western invented and developed technology, America has historically been a world leader in creativity.  Zhao then compares Asian and American education systems to show how, despite excelling on standardized tests, Asians continue to lag behind the west in creativity, “ . . .not because American schools teach creativity more or better than their Asian counterparts.  They just do not kill it as much as the Asians.”

A couple of favorite quotes from this insightful article:

“Performance on the First International Mathematics Study, as study of 13-year-olds in 11 countries conducted in 1964 (in which the United States finished second to last), was found to have either insignificant or negative correlation with the nation’s economic growth, productivity, democracy, livability or creativity—what really matters—40 years later.  ‘In short, the higher a nation’s test score 40 years ago, the worse its economic performance,’ writes Baker.”

And:

“Instead of becoming more like others who are eager to be more like Americans, American education needs to be more American—to preserve flexibility, protect individuality and promote multiple intelligences.  American education also needs to become more global—adopt a global perspective–, add foreign languages and cultures and advocate global citizenship.”

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