Making a Case for Passion (a work in progress)
Making a Case for Passion (the economic side of theory)
One of the things I found most interesting in my foray into educational theory was the idea that pedagogy depends on the requirements of society at any given moment in time (Aleinikov, AG). For instance:
· “When society needed a follower (in ancient times), there existed methods (pre-pedagogy) to train followers (“Do after me! Do as I do!”). This was good enough to produce hunters, fishermen, gatherers, warriors, etc.
· When society needed speakers (Ancient Greek studios), there existed pedagogy oriented at the upbringing of a speaker in rhetoric classes, in public discussions (Socratic Method)
· When society needed more craftsmen or workers, there appeared technical schools and pedagogies for technical teaching.
· When society needed more knowledgeable professionals, like engineers, doctors, and teachers, there appeared pedagogy of knowledge acquisition (schools, colleges).
In this post-industrial or globalizing world, the reality (at least in North America) that we see is the rise of what’s called by some (in particular Richard Florida) the creative class. The creative class looks like this:
· 30% of the US workforce makes up the creative class
· The creative class comprises people working in: science, engineering, education, computer science, research, art, design, and media
· The key quality of these workers is that they “draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific questions” (Florida)
And so is passion necessary for creativity?
Well further to this, apparently creativity and passion go hand in hand. Here’s two examples:
1. Daniel Pink, in his book Drive, cites that the three things that lead people to personal satisfaction and higher performance
Autonomy: freedom to do things on their own; self-directed
Mastery: ability to become the best
Purpose: the reason they are doing it is useful for the world at large
For autonomy, example of Atlassian, a software development company. Once a quarter, Thursday afternoon, management says work on whatever you want for 24 hours, what ever you want but at the end show us what you did. And it’s casual, with beer and cake and food. That one day, turns out has provided a whole array of fixes for software products, ideas for new products. Pink puts it as, “You probably want to do something, let me get out of your way.”
2. Bestselling author Thomas Friedman, “The World is Flat: A Brief history of the 21st century”, introduces the notion of the PQ (the passion quotient) and CQ or curiosity quotient, and says “"Give me the kid with a passion to learn and a curiosity to discover and I will take him or her over the less passionate kid with a huge IQ every day of the week." IQ "still matters, but CQ and PQ ... matter even more." (Friedman)
All this to say YES, it appears that there is a real world use and, in fact, a NEED and WANT for passion. No longer do I just have to say, I like to foster passion because it makes students engaged, but I can now say, I like to foster passion because it is an essential skill for their future.
One of the things I found most interesting in my foray into educational theory was the idea that pedagogy depends on the requirements of society at any given moment in time (Aleinikov, AG). For instance:
· “When society needed a follower (in ancient times), there existed methods (pre-pedagogy) to train followers (“Do after me! Do as I do!”). This was good enough to produce hunters, fishermen, gatherers, warriors, etc.
· When society needed speakers (Ancient Greek studios), there existed pedagogy oriented at the upbringing of a speaker in rhetoric classes, in public discussions (Socratic Method)
· When society needed more craftsmen or workers, there appeared technical schools and pedagogies for technical teaching.
· When society needed more knowledgeable professionals, like engineers, doctors, and teachers, there appeared pedagogy of knowledge acquisition (schools, colleges).
In this post-industrial or globalizing world, the reality (at least in North America) that we see is the rise of what’s called by some (in particular Richard Florida) the creative class. The creative class looks like this:
· 30% of the US workforce makes up the creative class
· The creative class comprises people working in: science, engineering, education, computer science, research, art, design, and media
· The key quality of these workers is that they “draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific questions” (Florida)
And so is passion necessary for creativity?
Well further to this, apparently creativity and passion go hand in hand. Here’s two examples:
1. Daniel Pink, in his book Drive, cites that the three things that lead people to personal satisfaction and higher performance
Autonomy: freedom to do things on their own; self-directed
Mastery: ability to become the best
Purpose: the reason they are doing it is useful for the world at large
For autonomy, example of Atlassian, a software development company. Once a quarter, Thursday afternoon, management says work on whatever you want for 24 hours, what ever you want but at the end show us what you did. And it’s casual, with beer and cake and food. That one day, turns out has provided a whole array of fixes for software products, ideas for new products. Pink puts it as, “You probably want to do something, let me get out of your way.”
2. Bestselling author Thomas Friedman, “The World is Flat: A Brief history of the 21st century”, introduces the notion of the PQ (the passion quotient) and CQ or curiosity quotient, and says “"Give me the kid with a passion to learn and a curiosity to discover and I will take him or her over the less passionate kid with a huge IQ every day of the week." IQ "still matters, but CQ and PQ ... matter even more." (Friedman)
All this to say YES, it appears that there is a real world use and, in fact, a NEED and WANT for passion. No longer do I just have to say, I like to foster passion because it makes students engaged, but I can now say, I like to foster passion because it is an essential skill for their future.