Creating new knowledge is one of the charges given to the University of California in the California Master Plan. I spend the entire summer talking with new students about how attending a research university is likely to be different than any other institution they've attended in the past. They will be asked to synthesize material, instead of regurgitating dates of this war or that treaty they will be asked to contemplate the events that lead up to said event and provide theories on why it might have occurred from a sociological, economical, perspective. They are asked to think critically and to "think for yourself".
Many students struggle with this shift in structure, especially during their first quarter, and it's no wonder. I had an ah-ha moment while watching the video that Katya sent to us on Saturday. At one point the narrator and artist reminded me that along the way our education system has asked students to stop tapping into what excites us and learn the test material. How have we moved so far from creativity and imagination and what will be the long-term consequences?
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