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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

While the cognitive side of many of these comments is interesting, I have to argue that, from experience, this is how things should be done in education. In my experience teaching college-level math-heavy courses, a firm basis in reasoning skills is the most critical step to academic success. Those who are, in addition to having high reasoning capability, also very creative perform the best, obviously... but a prerequisite of high-level reasoning skills is most critical.

If we are to become a nation which values STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education as highly as the fastest-growing economies today are, then we need to fully utilize the opportunity primary school presents to us as a vector for creating STEM-ready college candidates.

Many people (particularly those who have children which are or are themselves "creative but not gifted in math or science") believe this is an unfair proposition, since success would be weighted against them. However, I argue that everyone on this planet who is blessedly free of learning disorders is capable of creating the foundations required to succeed in any reasoning-oriented field. It is up to the parent to instill the discipline, values, and sense of self-esteem required for this. With this, children will be "ready to learn how to learn". Primary/secondary school will then teach them how to learn, and higher education will impart the actual knowledge necessary to get along in STEM fields... while the actual knowledge used day-to-day is naturally imparted through work experience.

In summary, my $0.02: Things are going well. We need disciplined, driven intellectuals foremost, while the creative few out of those many are the ones who will lead human society in the coming years.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I thought my formulation was elegant enough. I agree with what you said, but would point out that rationality is required to bring ideas to fruition, else all you have is randomness. Hence my first statement.

Conversely, without creativity, there is nothing to rationalize.

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