The End of Daydreaming.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2010


The End of Daydreaming.

Education is now the ultimate slayer of daydreams. Teachers have gotten stuck with the notion that daydreaming is somehow a careless inattention that interferes with their classroom objectives. Successful test performance by students has become the didactic imperative. School starts earlier and earlier to get a few more days for training students to successfully answer multiple choice tests.

Instead of mentoring our scholars on how to think, educators concentrate their efforts training children to perform on the ultimate ‘qualitative measurement of knowledge’, the standardized test. Annual assessments begin early in elementary school and continue through graduation from high school. Part of this valuable training includes teaching students how to make a best guess or basically, how to take tests. School day after school day, useless drivel is pounded into cerebral cortexes across America.

Children still want to daydream. The high spirited and rebellious engage in it whenever given the opportunity... unless and until the desire or ability is beaten out of them. It is not the nun or the principal wielding the paddle. Instead this task is delegated to the school counselor. As teachers force ‘on task’ classroom behavior they are smothering creative thought. Children whose minds wander are labeled ADD. One teacher said that she has yet to see a child who has been recommended for evaluation not diagnosed as having ADD. Of course they have ADD! What other result or diagnosis could be expected?

How are we to encourage creative thinking? A rigid curriculum does not foster this most essential aspect of education. Learning must begin to nourish individual thought so that creativity will flourish. Generations of worker bees are spawned and trained to march lock step while at the same time those insurgents industrious enough to attempt to take a different road are alienated, beaten down or drugged into a stupor.

If it is necessary to evaluate student performance using standardized testing is it not just as important to measure the ability to adapt and think creatively? How can this be done?

The arts are taking a real beating in this budget cutting time. The arts, music and even athletics should be mandatory subjects. Daydreaming or creative thinking needs to have curricula developed that encourage new ideas. Reward students that have the capability to generate original thinking. We must find ways to provide opportunity for the attention to wander. Where is there accountability assigned for this?

Daydreaming should be a part of every individual’s school or work day. What if industry gave every worker fifteen minutes daily to spend time just thinking about ways to make their jobs better, easier, more efficient or even more enjoyable? Surely that 3.125% of the work day would come to something besides just wasted time. What if schools did the same thing and engaged the students to become part of their own destiny?


We must not let daydreaming die! It is a frightful thought!

© 08.12.2010 steven d philbrick SR+ DakotaDawg
POSTED BY SRPLUS AT 2:19 PM