The Absense of Creativity in the Classroom is Killing the Future

After interviewing my teacher friend from North Carolina, I realized that most of the data I was writing my research paper on was almost null and void.  Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, there has been a new curriculum introduced, but again, it is being hamstrung by the politicians.  Only time will tell how much has actually changed, but honestly, I doubt much will.

My final paper was turned in on 12/8/14.  Its pretty long, but everyone that read it liked it, and some people who only read part of it wanted to read all of it....  As of right now (as I write this) I honestly don't know what grade I got, or the comments on it.  Hopefully I'll get it back from my teacher when I see her in the hallways.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy my final paper in English 1113.

Proposal for Research Paper

For my third and final major essay, the research paper, I had to write a proposal to write about what I wanted to write about.  The umbrella topic was education, and my first thoughts went to how education is broken in the USA.  From the concept that you cannot have imagination and grow up, to the leeching of fun out of it, to the idea that the entire high school system is based on trying to get people into an industrial plant, its all broken.

So, I thought and thought about how to write this short little thing, hoping it would end up being okay, and apparently it was.  So here it is, the proposal for my research paper:

Explaining Nerdy Things

The hardest part about explaining anything to anyone is getting past their own preconceived notions on the topic.  Some people will always see the thing you are trying to explain as silly, and your attempts at explaining it only make it more silly.

You really get into a bind when something is preconceived as ‘nerdy.’  Once it has that connotation, you might as well just give up trying to explain anything.  LARPing is the best example I can come up with right now.

Lisa's Turning me Back into a Nerd

As I walk down the street now-a-days, something happens that hasn’t happened to me since the 90s.  People stop and tell me how cool my shirt is, ask me where I got my shirt, or go about telling me a memory sparked by the shirt.

Fact is, back in high school, I wore nerdy shirts.  From Wolverine to the house crests from the A Game of Thrones novels, I enjoyed sporting the shirts based in the books and comic books I read.  I would always sport some kind of shirt that meant something to me.  The last one I bought, before meeting Lisa, was from Princess Mononoke, a wonderful anime movie.

The World is Built on Imagination

Somewhere along the way, I started collecting knowledge.  My brain just soaks it up from all over the place.  And somehow, along the same way, I proved Einstein right....  It all comes down to me having that childhood I discussed in The Time I Learned How to Pretend to Smile.

Einstein once said that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”  I know I use that quote a lot, but wow, what a quote....

(poem) - Knowledge's Famine

We need more
Lovers of fiction
Because the worst thing
Is taking art out of education

Parents clip the wings
Of their child’s sweet dreams
So they grow stunted
And believe the blaspheme



After childhood I awoke
To a world in dire agony
Where lies are on everyone’s lips
Being the antagonist’s progeny

The problem is
That very analogy
‘Waking up from childhood’
Undermines imagination, you see?

Imagination is what
Makes the world go ‘round
Okay, maybe that stretching
But its why we know what we found

Science is based
On understanding what we don’t
Imagining a world
In which applied physics work.

Without that imagination
We’d still be in the dark ages
Branding those that look beyond the horizon
As ignorant rather than sage



I know what I’m talking about
For I have lived a life
Where my imagination ran free
And though I have seen strife

I have also seen beauty
Beyond any compare
And seen the eyes of the ignorant
With that dull stare

I know what it means
To be looked down upon
Because I’ve dreamed too big
And seen what’s beyond the horizon

I lived my life
Free of the chains
That have bound the ignorant
To their own constrains

And for this I was blessed
Beyond what you can imagine
Because you have abandoned imagination
To knowledge’s true famine.

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

(poem) - A Child's Imagination

Dreams come alive
Within a child’s eyes
When they see
A Princess at Disney

Yes I know
It seems like a cliche of old
But imagination runs wild
In the mind of a child



It’s a truly beautiful thing
To watch imagination sing
And see the light
Of dreams shine so bright

It makes me want to create
Or start an intense debate
And suddenly the universe is small
Stars don’t seem far away at all

As your soul drifts upon the air
So very far up there
Amongst the dreams of better men
Who had far better acumen

Sometime or another
The child goes back to their mother
Who knows the truth
Because she thinks she’s a sleuth

But the true fact is
She is not the true wiz
Because reality within a child’s eye
Is where the truth doth lie

Because imagination is the key
That makes the future shine brightly
Cultivate that sense of awe
That’s how we’ll get our last hurrah

Because whatever we can dream
We can make as a team
But it all starts in a child’s eyes
Where all those dreams exist because they are alive....

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

Thoughts on Science

I truly wish some people would accept science.  There is so much beauty out there in the world, and its so wonderful to just understand it better.  And the best thing about science to me is, it takes so much imagination and thought to truly comprehend.

Birds are amazing creatures, they flit and fly and do such amazing things that make us humans so friggin’ jealous.  But I can’t help but look at them and see their history.  To think, their ancestors were the dinosaurs.  Its evolution at its purest, and its so amazing to just look at them and see the skeletons of those ancient, huge creatures.  Those little creatures have survived so much through the eons....  But how is it not amazing to think, the Dinosaurs didn’t become extinct, they evolved and survived, to thrive again.

I am a Gamer

Are video games more than just a pastime?  In the end, I have to argue the pastime thing about many things.  Take a look at books.  Are fictional books just a pastime?  Lets take a closer look.

I have to admit, that escapism is a type of pastime, but reading a book does more.  There are educational values, because many novelists like to use words that you would never ever use in regular every day speech.  I’ve learned so many words just from reading.  It also teaches you to pay attention, because many books have subtle plot twists.

Einstein said

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

An Etymology of the Emerald Bard

For those of you wondering about where Deeya came from, I decided to write a blog about it.  If you haven’t checked into the weekly serial you can catch the entire series HERE, and they will continue to come out every Saturday at 7pm CST.

Her original name was, “El’Mindeeya Do’Katal, the Emerald Bard of Kelethin.”  She was created in an MMO, and was a true Role Play character.  The MMO went into decline, and I pulled out of it.  It was truly a shame, but the company that ran it, Sony, just did not understand its fanbase.  It’s a tragic but true thing about online gaming, that will hopefully one day be addressed by someone.