by Jack Burns; The Free Thought Project
NASA brought in Dr. George Land and Beth Jarman to figure out how to identify and cultivate creative thinkers for the space program. Their assignment was to examine young students and locate the inventive minds the agency could tap for its broad portfolio of projects. In a recent TED presentation, Land laid out his team's surprising discoveries about the school system — findings that are genuinely startling.
The evidence shows that American youngsters gradually lose their capacity for original thought as they move through school. As students first embark on their academic journey, they retain nearly all of their creative thinking abilities. In other words, kids arrive in the world as creative virtuosos. Using a long-term research design, Land and Jarman tracked 1,600 subjects at ages 5, 10, and 15.
The results caught them off guard. When presented with a challenge that called for an inventive and imaginative response, 98% of the five-year-olds landed in the "genius" tier. Plainly stated, their approaches to solving the problem were outstanding.
Once kids entered the school system, those numbers began to nosedive. When the researchers came back to evaluate the same kids at age 10, the share of genius-level creative and inventive thinkers had plunged to a jaw-dropping 30%. The data led the investigators to suspect the existing education model as the culprit. A full 68% of those pupils lost their knack for imaginative and innovative thought, and the realization that just 30% could still pull it off is staggering.
The downward slide kept showing up at age 15. By the time the team checked in again, the proportion of genius-tier students had tumbled to a dismal 12%. Gasps echoed through the room as the audience tried to absorb how such a promising group of students could fall so steeply in their imaginative and innovative problem-solving abilities.
Land traces the collapse of creativity to the Industrial Revolution and its mushrooming factories. During that period, Land explained, the organic style of teaching and learning pushed educators to construct "factories for human beings, too, called 'schools' so we could manufacture people that could work well in the factories."
From a qualitative angle, teachers cite government interference for the dumbing-down of the country's students. Beginning with the formation of the Department of Education, the federal government's fingerprints are everywhere on some of the most damaging decisions in public policy and schooling.
From the Clinton Administration's mandated federal testing rules, to Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, to the troubled Obama Administration's Common Core Curriculum, educators nationwide have complained that they aren't actually teaching anymore. They're merely coaching students to hit the bare-minimum benchmarks needed to pass a standardized exam.
Predictably, throughout those administrations' attempts to impose a uniform model of education on the country, the homeschool movement has surged. Parents were pushed to the conclusion that their local public school was failing to deliver an education solid enough to prepare their kids for college.
As a result, Land's team was unsurprised to find that only 2% of grown-ups (age 31) still retain their capacity for imaginative, creative, and innovative thought. He shared:
Land argues that adults can actually return to creative, imaginative thinking if they shed rigid mental habits. He urges audiences to drop three elements of education: judgment, criticism, and censorship.
When students generate a clever idea, they face relentless critique, so they get trained to think like the crowd rather than offering an accepted alternative solution.
"Find the 5-year-old," within yourself, Land urges. He says it has "never gone away" and can be reached at any moment. Land noted "So, The Great Designer said, 'I'm gonna put that mechanism in so they exercise it every day in case they ever need an idea.' You've got that capability, absolutely!"
But Land notes we only engage that genius portion of our minds when we're dreaming. So dream big! Dream often. And don't let critics douse your imagination.
Using brain scan imaging, Land showed how the mind goes nearly dormant when it's afraid. By contrast, the human brain fires intensely when it's envisioning.
Without singling out the school system, Land tackled the central flaw with training students to chase the "correct answer." He argues, instead, that learners should brainstorm many possibilities to unlock innovation and problem-solving.
According to Land, for industry to survive, it has to keep innovating and adapting to change, anticipating the environment to shift, and shifting alongside it. Rather than fixating on a single right answer, generate 30-40 inventive solutions to drive innovation.
