On the Death of Genius for the Sake of College
Friday, 22 August 2008 Clay Burell 
Print This Post
A permanent present – what a haunting phrase. How bizarre and surreal it must be to serve a life sentence in the prison of the moment, trapped forever in the perpetual now, a world without end, a time without later. — Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, p. 14
Call me crazy, but I couldn’t help but think of students when I read this earlier tonight. A particular kind of student, anyway. The Korean kind, for sure, and possibly, from what I read, more and more American ones too.
I mean the ones who are so over-scheduled with schoolwork, homework, SAT test-prep cram schools, and all the other madness that keeps them focused on memorizing the data and pounding out the grunt-work, one assignment and one GPA-increment at a time, year in and year out – from what, grade 9? Or is that too late to begin worrying these days? – that they rarely have time to pull back and reflect on anything at all. 1
“A permanent present.” Isn’t that what the overload of content, testing, homework, and extra-curricular bullet-gaming for college applications is creating for our young? It makes me wonder if school itself is not the cause of “A.D.D.”: when attention is constantly hurried in seven different disciplines from unit to unit, no option to pull the cord and get off the train, is it any wonder attention is deficient and understanding is, to quote an old Bowie line, a series of “one-inch thoughts”?
Maybe I’m wrong. I know I am with some teachers, bless ‘em. The ones that choose thought over coverage, choice over prescription.
That permanent present, by the way? It’s a description of people who have had lobotomies or other traumas to the frontal lobe.
* * *
American college students expect to live longer, stay married longer and travel to Europe more often than average. They believe they are more likely to have a gifted child, to own their own home and to appear in the newspaper, and less likely to have a heart attack, venereal disease, a drinking problem, an auto accident, a broken bone or gum disease. Ibid., p. 18
Kids, I hate to break it to you, but my experience of you college-bound grade-junkies is one, overall – again, let’s bless the exceptions – of pity and disappointment. You’ve got great grades, yes, but so little else. No driving passion for anything unique or original, no budding genius. It’s more schools’ fault than yours, but you’re not completely free of blame. You’re the ones allowing yourselves to be turned into carbon copies of “competitive college applicants.” You can choose else-wise.
I hate to break this to you too: the college of your dreams is no guarantee of happiness. You may already be decreasing your chances of future happiness by your daily compromises to get into those schools. It’s hard to have a soulful life, if you sold your soul before graduating high school. Souls are hard things to buy back.
* * *
Genius Defined (It’s not what you think):
Let’s take a quick detour into the meaning and origins of that word, “genius.” Most of us don’t know what it means when we use it. Apple’s dictionary gives us a good etymology:
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin, ‘attendant spirit present from one’s birth, innate ability or inclination,’ from the root of gignere ‘beget.’ The original sense [tutelary spirit attendant on a person] gave rise to a sense [a person's characteristic disposition] (late 16th cent.), which led to a sense [a person's natural ability,] and finally [exceptional natural ability] (mid 17th cent.).
Wikipedia gives us a little more:
In Ancient Rome, the genius was the guiding or “tutelary” spirit of a person. . . .
In Roman mythology, every man had a genius and every woman a juno. . . .
Originally, the genii and junones were ancestors who guarded over their descendants. Over time, they turned into personal guardian spirits, granting intellectual prowess.
Wikipedia closes with this intriguing gem:
Sacrifices were made to one’s genius or juno on one’s birthday.
And that gem strikes me as crushingly ironic today, because today, we don’t sacrifice to our genius at all; instead, we sacrifice that genius itself - to our schools.
Look at the emphasized words in the passages above, and tell me if I’m wrong when I say: the essence of genius is precisely what schools exclude. What does that essence consist of?
1. Individual Inclination, Innate Ability
Note the root “gen” in “genius.” Genius is present in our origin (same root), our genes, our genesis – our nature. These shape and determine our individuality. In this sense, “genius” is not about being brilliant, but about having a cognitive-emotional-creative fingerprint that is entirely unique from the moment we’re born. To get homespun for a second, it’s just that thing that makes us tick, that piques our individual interest or curiosity.
Sir Ken Robinson tells the sad tale of the researchers asking six-year-olds if they were artists, and all of them saying yes; but asked four years later, deep into the assembly line of generic curriculum and one-size-fits-all learning, only a fraction of hands go up; and by adolescence, almost none do. You may quibble with the difference between artists and geniuses, but to me they’re deeply related in this simple fact: artists pursue their own “individual inclinations and innate abilities” – their own genius.
2. Genius as “Tutelary Spirit”
More fun with definitions and etymologies: “tutelary,” defined: “serving as a protector, guardian, or patron.” Its etymology: “from Latin tutela ‘keeping’ (from tut- ‘watched,’).”
So to the ancients, our individually innate inclinations and abilities, our”genius,” was that thing that protected us, guarded us, “kept” us, “watched” us and, most interestingly – playing with the sense of “patron” – fathered us.
To be clearer, to the ancients, the only teacher you needed was your own “genius,” your own curiosity and drive to satisfy it – whatever “it” is, which depends on who you are.
Quit reading if you’re not into this line of thought, because I want to follow it down another linguistic byroad to the obvious and, today, ubiquitous derivative of the old world “tutelage”: you guessed it – “tutor.” It’s another crushing irony: though derived from “tutelage,” the deep old word associated with letting our genius be our teacher, the word “tutor” today has nothing to do with inborn genius, and everything to do with its opposite: school-manufactured uniformity and anti-individualism, anti-genius. Again, the dictionary is my witness:
tutor |ˈt(y)oōtər|
noun
a private teacher, typically one who teaches a single student or a very small group.
• chiefly Brit. a university or college teacher responsible for the teaching and supervision of assigned students.
• an assistant lecturer in a college or university. [emphasis added]
Goodbye, genius; hello, schooliness. Gone is the language of spirit, of nature, of self-tutelage now, and in its place is the lexicon of schools: “teacher, student, university, college, responsible for, supervision, assigned, lecturer.” Genius, the once-”tutelary guardian, protector, and patron” of “natural, innate inclination and disposition” is overthrown, and in its place now is the academic teacher, the master of a classroom, stuffing the headpieces of the young with the straw that will be transformed into golden grades. To hell with your genes, your nature, your curiosity. My job as a tutor is to help you advance to the front of whatever class you are forced to take.2
The Why of this Rant: To Students
flowers, drowning
College will not make you successful. A degree that gets you a good job will not make you happy. Unless: you remember your genius (if any has survived your schooling), and let it drive your educational choices.
I can’t tell you how many well-heeled parents I’ve spoken with at length in parent conferences over the years, parents wealthy, attractive, full of status and prestige and awash in luxury, who have nonetheless left me, again, feeling little more than pity and disappointment. The sparkle in their rings and watches did not extend into their conversation, their wit, their eyes. They had succeeded at the college game, made buckets of money, but with all of that success, had failed to find happiness.
The exceptions? Bless them, they seemed to choose an education in line with their genius – not their parents’ or their society’s wishes.
And all of this comes from a few pages from a book on that wonderful new field of psychology, “happiness studies,” and its wonderful news that, when it comes to making choices that steer us to happy futures, we’re our own worst enemies. Check it out. It’s a good read – and hey, it will also impress your SAT essay reader, since it’s by a Harvard professor.
–
Photo credits: Progress by ~BostonBill~ ; Roses by Tio
- I read recently that the ETS is now floating a PSAT clone for the middle school years. Great work, bastards. Rob even more living and learning from childhood by making them obsess on indelible test scores even earlier in their childhoods. Pocket more profits from your stupifying study guides for tests that kill curiosity and implant the quest for the safe, right answer. [↩]
- And let me tell you: my tutoring experience so far has been fun, but shocking too. The parents are generally indifferent to the growth of any passion or wisdom or skill in their children that is not related to helping them ace this or that class or test. They seem no more concerned, in other words, with the genius of their children than schools are. [↩]
- On Student Genius, How Not to Grade a Wiki, and Making the World a Stage
- How Freedom Can Depress Students: More from Happiness Studies
- Calling Out the College Board and ETS: An Educators’ Campaign for 2008?
- 21st Century College Work in the Cutting-Edge Humanities
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: books, unschooling Print This Post
No. 1 — December 31st, 1969 at 11:59 pm
http://beyond-school.org/2008/08/22/death-of-genius/ **note to self: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”
Reply
No. 2 — August 22nd, 2008 at 6:57 am
I teach in a private school where I am also a parent and can tell you firsthand the pressure to have academically gifted children who are also talented at sports and music and fluently multilingual. Why? Parental ego? Wishes and hopes for child’s future happiness? Complete delusion?
I have to believe that the motivation for this craziness is love of one’s children and a belief in education as the key to a rich and fulfilling life.
I completely agree with your assertion that happiness comes through knowing yourself and following your genius. If only it were so simple. By that I mean, if only our schools and society recognized that genius comes in many packages, that everyone’s path is not supposed to be the same. As for schools (and schooliness, of course!), I have long been a believer that if schools would do a better job of acknowledging and teaching to different talents, overall academic performance would improve as a result. Who wants to be beaten over the head with more and more academics when your true love and talent is music (or art or p.e. or….). But, as high-stakes testing becomes more high-stakes, schools respond by taking away art and music. Vicious cycle.
Andrea Hernandezs last blog post..As Real as Gravity
Reply
Clay Burell Reply:
August 25th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Andrea, I’m both testing a new “threaded comment” plugin I just installed with you as the ‘guinea pig’ (and did I spell “guinea” right, he wondered perfectly in line with Andrea’s latest post), and also by choice – just to say I like “as real as gravity” as a blog title because it goes beyond “tech” and “work,” and into directions my mind loves.
And while I’m at it, let me add that I’ve enjoyed the comments and the tweets, and enjoy your writing in them and on your blog.
Check out BS post (god i love that abbreviation) to see how the plugin looks. (And by the way, I can’t highly enough recommend taking the plunge into self-hosting a WP blog early instead of late. The longer you stay on blogger, the more dead links you’ll have when you jump ship to WP – and the longer you’ll go without the tinkerer’s fun of self-hosting. Presumptuous of me, I know, but I started on blogger too.)
Clay Burells last blog post..How Freedom Can Depress Students: More from Happiness Studies
Reply
No. 3 — August 22nd, 2008 at 6:59 am
related article you might find interesting here-
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=402674&encCode=5963447391BC23737875JTBS737226611
Andrea Hernandezs last blog post..As Real as Gravity
Reply
No. 4 — August 22nd, 2008 at 8:18 am
Hello, Clay,
The Middle School PSAT is being rolled out in 2010 — I read about it on August 8th in the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-test8-2008aug08,0,1941799.story
On a related note, the Princeton Review, one of the test prep companies raking in cash fueled by parental fear, recently posted the private information of over 100,000 students on their web site for 7 weeks. The story was in the NY Times this week; I blogged about it a couple days ago, and I’m truly amazed that no one seems to care. Those interested can google this string to read more: Princeton Review leaks student data
Sure makes me wish some crazy person would advocate for an entire graduating class to boycott the SAT, and deprive the test of any pretense of statistical validity, and force colleges to figure out another way of admitting students, as colleges couldn’t survive without tuition revenue.
FWIW, you’ve been on a tear as of late. Thanks for the thought-provoking reading.
Cheers,
Bill
Reply
No. 5 — August 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
I spent yesterday at Freshmen orientation explaining to our children that the mission of Catholic education is to educate the whole person to fulfill their God given dignity in line with their unique gifts. Then I attended a curriculum meeting and had the aching thought that we pay much more lip service to this mission than actually fulfilling it as i listened to a self study be denied because of what it would do to the whole GPA game amongst our seniors.
I’m thinking about returning to commodity trading to make enough money to open my own school and see if it can’t be done a better way.
Charlie A. Roys last blog post..Finding Balance
Reply
No. 6 — August 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 am
Clay,
This is such a timely post for me to read. I discouraged my son from taking the PSAT and the SAT. (a little less money in the pockets of the ETS! I have joked about starting an organization called, “Mothers Against the SAT”) I also encouraged him to pursue something other than the traditional college route as it is not what interests him or what he is skilled at.
He had one teacher who recognized he was good at something in HS – she validated his digital photography skills – his eye for visual detail and visual composition.
Now, all his peers are leaving for college and he is not. He is still figuring out what is ahead for him. The world is still his but I am feeling guilty that I limited his options by encouraging him to pursue alternatives that did not include applying to a four year college or university.
I know I didn’t, but the pressure to do the “schooliness” route is intense not just K-12 but beyond.
(We live in Massachusetts, the pressure is great).
Thank you for helping me remember what is important.
KarenJans last blog post..Got Architectural Barriers?
Reply
No. 7 — August 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Once again you have my head buzzing–I’m going to throw out a few (incomplete) thoughts. Your post was incredibly powerful–it gets to the heart of education (to life, really).
Every now and then a good discussion breaks out in the faculty lounge. Really. They often end badly, with someone ranting about “these kids!” or “this administration!” or “you don’t understand!” which is why a place like Beyond School matters.
What’s the point of education? The question often comes up when we discuss curriculum, which we do a lot in our department.
I think American public education exists for two primary reasons, and I continue to teach with these reasons in mind.
1)To prepare our children for an active role as responsible citizens in our democratic society.
2) To enable children to pursue happiness
The first reason doesn’t get much flack–who’s going to argue with Thomas Jefferson? If the conversation drifts to what I mean by “responsible citizens”, a few folks get a little upset that it doesn’t jive with “compliant, docile consumer” (though I think they use the words “good American”), but I’ll save my long-windedness on that for another day.
I will say that I have a beautiful copy of the Bill of Rights that I will post to a wall as soon as I get a permanent classroom; it beats a headshot of whoever happens to be our current monarch.
The second part, the pursuit of happiness, doesn’t get too far in discussion. It is a dangerous idea to bandy about in unhappy places, especially in a culture that is confused about what happiness means (or rather, how to know happiness).
Quite frankly, the idea of using education to help child pursue happiness pisses off a lot of people I talk to. Apparently our job is not to create happy citizens, but rather to prepare them for college. (They’re not, of course, mutually exclusive, but neither are they interdependent.)
Again, I am not talking about “Whoopee! I won the lottery, let’s all go out and get smashed!” happy, and neither was Jefferson (there’s that name again) when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
What makes others happy?
None of my business as a public school teacher, I guess, but I think we do just that when we insist that students do such-and-such to get to college to get a degree, make money, so…they can be happy.
What makes me happy?
Sitting outside as the sun sets, knowing I did some worthwhile work (not 14 hours of “some”, but some), sharing songs with others I love, ideally with an instrument one or two of us can play, eating food that tastes good, sitting on chairs someone I know built, sharing true (if not factual) stories.
My tastes are not universal, and I dare not impose them on students, but at least I have an idea of what makes me happy, and most of what makes me happy makes others happy as well.
Relaxing with people we love, sharing stories we people we love, breaking bread with stories we love, creating things with people we love. (Yeah, I know, sounds like the Ann Arbor Hash Bash, and people are quick to dismiss these ideas–but I suspect they’re universal.)
How do I get children to a point where they can pursue happiness?
Provide them with practical tools to get them there.
How does a science teacher do this?
Teach them to separate observations from delusions, show them how to critically question what they know, and just as important, how to critically dissect what others tell them.
Oh, yes, one more thing–to show them how complex and large the universe is. Show them. And allow them to realize they are part of something larger.
The title “science teacher” subtly belies a much bigger problem–we compartmentalize schooling. If someone asks me what I do for a living, I say I teach, not “I’m a science teacher.”
Probably the best way to help children become happy citizens is to surround them with happy adults. This often happens in the home, less often in school.
Too many teachers are counting the days to retirement.
I think the next best way to enable children to pursue the good life is to give them practical life skills, skills that allow independent living as well as independent thinking.
Ideally this happens at home–kids should learn how to build, fix, read, sew, grind, plant, change a tire, set a toilet, shingle a roof.
Sorry to ramble, but you touched a big nerve with a high voltage line.
Michael Doyles last blog post..What’s matter?
Reply
No. 8 — August 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I didn’t even get to a “permanent present”–if you are in a state of general happiness, I bet you’re in some sort of permanent present as well.
Shoot, the permanent present is all we really have. The problem is too many people are striving for an imagine future or trying to recapture some rapturous past.
I’d argue that the reason we find acknowledging the permanent present so frightening is that many of us are not happy.
But I’d best read the book–I think I might be comparing apples and oranges.
(I may eventually drag parts of your discussion over to my blog, with accreditation, of course. Typing in these tiny comment boxes without a chance to edit after the fact is contributing to my rapid loss of hair. I cringe when I reread parts of my posts after hitting the submit button.)
Michael Doyles last blog post..What’s matter?
Reply
No. 9 — August 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 am
@Doyle: Your “about” sidebar’s image of children “confounding” education by playing in ponds was in the mental ether when I wrote this post. (And you can always submit a corrected comment and ask me to delete the first draft.)
@Andrea: Vicious. @KarenJan’s “fantasy” of starting a “parents against the SAT” should be re-categorized as a project. Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody is full of ideas of how to do that.
@Charlie: It must be hard to be an administrator. As I commented on your site recently, you’ve opened my eyes to just how hard that job must be for administrators who really do want to make changes against the grain.
@Bill: That’s the second time you’ve mentioned that boycott, and I know you think it implausible (and I agree). But I can’t help but think in this age we have the tools to raise a high-decibel ruckus to put these charlatans in the spotlight. FairTest.org is trying. A professor at MIT is also doing a good job. And SAT-optional schools are increasing. Again, I think of Shirky. When life stabilizes, it’s something to tinker with.
@KarenJan again: I think you did the right thing. You can always tell which people followed their genius (Joseph Campbell called genius “bliss”) – there’s a there there.
Reply
No. 10 — August 23rd, 2008 at 1:45 am
Hi Clay,
Brilliant post. Great to see that your blog site is a fertile garden for cultivating your own intellectual fruits and vegetables – all organic.
I spent a day with Will Richardson at a workshop this past week. Just think if our student savants had the opportunity to receive quality instruction about establishing their own blogs and were empowered to develop their literacies.
I recently read an excellent article about “The Essence of Understanding” which fits in well with this discussion – engaging the intellectual fire.
An overview can be read at:
http://quoteflections.blogspot.com/2008/08/dimensions-of-understanding.html
Paul Cs last blog post..Music to Bring One to Tears
Reply
No. 11 — August 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 am
Okay, Doyle, we aim to please. I sought and found an “edit comments” WordPress plugin. Commenters now have five minutes to edit after submitting.
Let’s see how it feels.
It’s butt-ugly, but that’s okay, I guess.
[Edited update: Works spiffingly.]
Reply
No. 12 — August 23rd, 2008 at 3:36 am
I enjoyed this post (and comments!) immensely. In this season of motivational dog-and-pony shows aimed at kicking off a successful year of grade-grubbing, we’d all be better off simply foregoing the pre-fab prof-dev and instead, read this post aimed at preventing more soul detachments.
I’m definitely all over the SAT boycott thing. I think it’s an interesting idea with much potential. My concern is: if a boycott were undertaken and large amounts of people participated, would some other equally heinous metric take the SAT’s place? Humans seem to like to be able to compare each other in very objective ways.
I don’t know. There’s a lot to think about here.
Bill Farrens last blog post..Aerial Viewing
Reply
No. 13 — August 23rd, 2008 at 5:01 am
[...] http://beyond-school.org/2008/08/22/death-of-genius/ attitude, post-secondary system, success [...]
No. 14 — August 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
[...] Your page is on StumbleUpon [...]
No. 15 — August 24th, 2008 at 12:46 am
@Andrea, thanks for that link, by the way. A good read.
Reply
No. 16 — August 24th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
[...] here for Part 1: On the Death of Genius for the Sake of College] The fact is that human beings come into the world with a passion for control, they go out of the [...]
No. 17 — August 26th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Enjoyed navigating the textual pathways presented by your well hewn words Clay. Your readers have expressed my thoughts. I have arrived late. Yet I need to share an anecdote that I feel illustrates the fact the system is not nurturing innate ability.
Attended a professional development day not long back. All but one component was largely irrelevant. Some attendees were reflecting on it after the event and remarked that perhaps the day was designed to give the teachers present an insight into the boredom experienced by the students that attend their schools each day. Was going to blog this anecdote myself but it feels more at home here.
“Tell you who you are if you nail me to your car”
Cheers, John
PS. Clay, the link to Ken Robonson’s site is broken. ^_^
Reply
No. 18 — August 26th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I remember! I have been racking my brains as I knew that something I had heard today was relevant for this post. It just popped into my head.
A Year 10 student uttered one of those great observations in history during lesson one today. I was sketching a diagram on the board. It employed stick figures.
She said, “Whoever invented stick figures was a genius”.
That was such a revelatory moment for her and also for me.
Cheers,
John
Reply
No. 19 — August 26th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
[...] was a revelatory moment for her and also for me. That person was a genius. addthis_url = [...]
No. 20 — August 28th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
[...] It was a revelatory moment for her and also for me. That person was a genius. [...]
No. 21 — August 30th, 2008 at 4:03 am
[...] means he’s going to throw quality stuff past you at high velocity.I’ll be dwelling on one–say, “On the Death of Genius for College”–and he’ll throw 3 straight fastballs past me while I’m still gawking.I start school in a week. I [...]
No. 22 — November 6th, 2008 at 9:11 am
[...] –Beyond School, by Clay Burell [...]
No. 23 — January 14th, 2009 at 3:06 am
School is a subliminal system created for people to become slaves to the society that we live in. I am a college student and have suffered more that pressure but depression, anxiety….. The list goes on. I always said that “society will never be the cause of my death even without taking my breath!” Im so tired of being bombarded with material just to regurgitate it back to my professor. We have limited ourselves as a society from every aspect. We have indulged way to much in the opinions and ideas of other ppl. I can’t write one essay without a teacher telling me that it doesn’t make sense why because they cannot think for themsleves. They were taught and conditioned to be robots and now they lack understanding and are incapable of articulating material. I once asked a teacher how can you teach philosphy and you don’t have a philisophical mind. You just know what Aristole and what all the other philosophers had to say so your arguing with me with their ideas and your limited because I can think for myself. Im not trying to say lets denounce every genius that has come along but lets not indulge way to much into it that we put on their mind sets and prevent ourselves from thinking and going to the next level. There has been so many ppl that have gone to the next level without even knowing about the previous work of the other genius. There is structure in abstraction and we need to stay away from this traditional crap in our transitional world that we live in. Weve done enough damage can’t we look around and see ie. The invention of plastic. Who was the genius who discovered that only to pollute our earth and put us in another black hole. Someone help me to find a school where I can be understood for once in my life. If anyone knows any.
Thank You, Latoya Brown
Reply