MINION VS. VISIONARY

Lexie came to spend the night with me on Sunday, so we could take in a flick at the Corral Theatre. We had some time to kill between dinner and "dark thirty", which is when the movies always start, so we picked up our knitting and Lex asked to watch Temple Grandin, which I posted about earlier this week. Unfortunately for you, this means yet another day of my obsessing about it, for I just can't seem to get it out of my head. Why is that?

Perhaps it is due to the spotlight it shines upon the fact that each person is unique, and learns in different ways, and the ones who do well in school and are labeled "smart" aren't necessarily the ones who are going to solve the problems of the world. The so-called smart are merely the ones that fit the public school mold, thus making teachers' jobs easier.

Having started school back in the days before educators knew anything about dyslexia or learning disabilities, I've seen it all firsthand, and have spent my life fighting against the assumption that kids who happen to have a knack for memorizing a bunch of trivia, then vomiting it back on a test, are in any way smarter than ones who have trouble with that, but have come up with inventive ways to compensate for it - especially if the "smart ones" never take the time to ponder over what they have been taught, or question its veracity.

Are these "smart ones" going to figure out how to cap a deep water well, or deal with climate change and peak oil? Or will they go through life with blinders on, accepting whatever propaganda they are fed? I suspect that if they were to add a new section to high school yearbooks, you would probably find them listed under "Most Likely to Become a Minion". Thanks, but I'll take a divergent thinker any ol' day - someone like that kid in Sorcerer's Apprentice, the movie we are watching in the pics above. I mean, seriously, who but a geek could save the world from evil?

Alrighty then, moving on to other subjects at last...

P.S. Yes, I am now painfully aware that someone needs to clean her camera lens!