When knowledge is treated as an end in itself and not as a means for living our lives, it can tend to be reproduced dogmatically. Students fail to think for themselves because schools fail to teach them to do just that. All too often, teachers transmit a singular understanding of the world to students, meant to be replicated without any analysis or reflection. This can be a dangerous educational practice as it can lead to indoctrination. This often goes unnoticed because if it is coherent with our normative beliefs we typically accept it and even endorse it, however do we want students to reproduce the world as it is or create it anew?
To learn creatively is to learn various perspectives and dissect them, pulling them apart and putting them back together again to develop an understanding of many possibilities for action and belief across cultures and throughout history. Students learn concepts from multiple dimensions and how they can be applied in life in a myriad of ways. In this way, they develop a broad tool chest of possibilities in which to create and innovate, rather than reproduce a unquestioned status quo.
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