Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Behavioral rigidity

A very dear friend (I was born on his birthday) mentioned the German word Einstellung that refers to a person's predisposition to solve a given problem in a specific manner even though there are "better" or more appropriate methods of solving the problem. The term seems to explain why proponents of school reform might think that testing would be the means of fixing schools since testing was what led them to believe there was a problem in the first place. Another term for Einstellung is "behavioral rigidity."

Blog reader John Grossbohlin sent this article, N.Y. day camps face state crackdown on games. Of course we all want our children to be safe. We want them to avoid injury. But do we want them stupid, too? Einstellung. It was a concept explored by Abraham S. Luchins through an experiment called the Water Jar Problem.

The photo is completely unrelated to this post. It is of dogwood leaves in the fall. Wrong season. But what's wrong with surprise?

In the meantime, and on your own time,

Make, fix and create.

1 comment:

  1. Doug, that's very much akin to McDonald's having to label their coffee cups with caution because of hot liquid! Duh... I'm afraid this has all been driven by the legal community or at least in reaction to frivolous litigation. Such foolishness.

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