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Throughout Eric Weiner's entire quest to places of genius located in various parts of the world, the author of Geography of Genius asked many important questions; however, perhaps the most important question he would ask would be if there was a reason why certain places throughout history had so many geniuses. Weiner would pursue the answer to this questions through results of research already conducted, and through the intake of personal experience as he explored the depths of these ex-creativity-hotspots. He discovered that many creative settings had one or more central conflicts serving as obstacles to daily life and that they were never these paradise-like places we might associate them to be. In the end, his conclusion of why certain locations
When analyzing the article “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” written by Mike Rose, and the article “Shop Class as Soulcraft,” by Matthew B. Crawford, you can see several differences in the strategies they use. Rose’s text was an educational article about the intelligence gained through manual labor trades. Roses intended audience is the well educated, professional class, as well as educators, and individuals working in white collar jobs. His purpose is to prove that not all blue-collar workers need an education to succeed and to bust the stereotype that blue-collar individuals can gain the essential skills and education from their jobs. Crawford also based his article around blue-collar work, he mainly focuses on the values the craftsman, being a craftsman
Author and Harvard graduate, Leonid Fridman, in an excerpt of his article, America Needs Its Nerds, points out America’s anti-intellectualism. Fridman’s purpose is to inform the reader of the contempt held for the intellectually curious and call for a change in the country’s attitude. He adopts a condemning tone to make the reader aware of the issue and encourage them to change their mindset.
James Howard Kunstler begins his work, “The Geography of Nowhere,” at a top speed and continues from there. He starts chapter one, Scary Place, by describing the story of Judge Doom from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, which is the fictional character that is supposedly responsible for Los Angeles becoming taken over by the freeways. He then continues quoting Lewis Mumford, who was basically the dean of American urban academics in the beginning of the 1900s. He gloomily predicted, would completely demoralize mankind and lead to the nuclear holocaust (p. 10).
School is a frightening place. It is broken down into multiple social ranks, and many children find themselves at the bottom. With children trying to work their way to the top of the food chain, the actual learning portion is either set aside or forgotten altogether. In Grant Penrod’s essay, Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids, he explains how modern children are growing to dislike intellectual children. The varying social ranks teach children to ignore low grades and try to be popular in school. Anti-Intellectualism is a trend which is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. People who only strive to be popular tend to tease intellectuals, but this is not half of the story. If the only goal children have in school
All students, and children especially, have tremendous talents, which are forgotten when their minds walk through the school door. Their forever developing talents and favorite interests are left for an uncreative school environment. I, for one, have always been taught and believed in an education, or following the guidelines of another, was essential in achieving wealth and success later in life. However, after listening to Robinson’s argumentative speech, I realize creativity and a valued education coincide with each other. To justify myself, creativity and thinking outside the box has led to many of the world’s advancements. Therefore, when teaching future leaders, and future generations of employees and employers, teaching creativity in a forever rapidly changing and unpredictable world would have benefits. At last, I believe that the educational system puts too much emphasis on a substantial, everyday American future over one’s happiness in a later life. Every human being is already born a unique artist, never made into one; constantly growing into a more talented
Many geographers have attempted creating a unified theory explaining why cultures advance much more readily than others. Very few have actually reached mainstream society and even fewer seem reasonable. However, Jared Diamond shines where most do not. His book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, proposes an idea that has long been established called environmental determinism. Most view environmental determinism as a racist theory attributing a peoples’ intelligence only to their oppressive climates and geographical barriers. Diamond instead has created a theory that applies environmental determinism to only a peoples’ technology—not the people themselves. This has given researchers valuable tools that allow them to explain why some nations have become the superpowers they are today. If applied to the modern United States, Jared Diamond and his new theory would attribute the country’s dominate status to blankity blankity blank.
In this notable Ted Talk video "Do schools kill creativity?", Sir Ken Robinson discusses how public education systems demolish creativity because they believe it is essential to the academic growth and success of students. Robinson created a broad arrange of arguments to persuade the viewers to take action on this highly ignored issue, and he primarily focuses on how important creativity is. There are classes within schools that help utilize creativity, but they are not taken seriously by adults in society. Therefore, the value of creative knowledge decreases. Robinson uses an unusual combination of pathos and ethos to make an enjoyable dispute for implementing an education system that nurtures rather than eats away at creativity.
One’s sense of place is determined by where they feel comfortable, at home, or simply welcomed. Millions of people consider their sense of place as being in an urban setting, but millions more are cast out of the urban space. What causes this “urban unevenness”? There are many factors to consider when thinking about the urban divide including race, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and physical and mental health to name a few. Massey’s essay, “Global Sense of Place”, discusses what she calls “time-space compression” which can explain why some people feel included in an urban space and others are excluded. Massey’s idea of “sense of place” is furthered by looking at examples from Williamson’s accounts of the destruction
The creative class is an emerging socioeconomic class in the United States. Richard Florida, a well-decorated Professor, defined this new class of Americans. Richard Florida focused on social and economic theories, which has developed a popular reputation in many cities today where the creative class has been adopted. This new class of Americans emerged after Richard Florida debuted his book The Rise of the Creative Class: And How it’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life in 2002. After 2002 postindustrial cities began to move to more economic development.
James Howard Kunstler is an American author and is best known for his books on urban life and cities. His book The City in Mind is about the innerworkings and history of some of the most famous cities in the world and is a very fascinating narrative on urban life and city history. Kunstler talks about many different cities such as Paris, Atlanta, Mexico City, Las Vegas, and several others. The author reveals a lot about what he thinks makes a city great and what can lead to a failed city. The City in Mind shows readers how some of the greatest cities were created and how some failed which can be crucial for planning future cities and a lot can be learned from reading this book. Kunstler does not exactly tell you whether a city is bad or good.
The wise words of Tim Marshall, that “All leaders are constrained by geography,” reinforces the notion that world events are indeed affected in context to its physiological traits. With the rise of fierce competition for geographic resources, the developed world differs vastly from those that are still developing. Constricted by the institutional structures set by global developed countries due to their fierce industrial competition, lesser developed worlds recede further and further from the economic standards of the world. Influenced by economic outbursts, each respective developed and undeveloped countries form their own urban models due to the restraints of their geography. In current times, there’s been a harsh but true division of resources
Jared Diamond’s Theory of Geographic Luck explains the reason why some countries, such as Iraq, were able to develop more rapidly than other countries, such as New Guinea. Their ability to become modernized and gain power, wealth, and strength are based on various factors, such as the climate they lived in, the plants found in their surrounding environment, and the animal species found in the region that could be domesticated. Ultimately, it came down to one thing—geographic luck.
Knox, P. L. & Marston, S. A. Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography. Upper Saddle River , NJ : Pearson Education, Inc., 2003.
We are living in a “century of scientific knowledge and innovation”. The world’s leading nations in these times are those who create, innovate and exploit knowledge. Today the standing of a country in the comity of nations depends on its ability to transform knowledge into opportunity, wealth and social welfare through creativity and innovation. Trade and industry are becoming more knowledge driven than ever. Trade in raw and natural substances has given way to trade in high technology goods and services. Creative thinking and the ensuing sea of knowledge and innovation has brought about a complete transformation in the world we inhabit today.
If you want to be a creative person, you should be far away from school. Nowadays, the topic of the relationship between innovation and creativity has attracted attention from all aspects of society. At most situations, schools do affect innovation. But instead of saying schools “suppress” creativity, it is more accurate to say school “affect” education.