The Independent Notebook Analysis

In a world often controlled by the realm of computational thinking and a life consumed by math and science classes, creative thought oftens appears to be mitigated. It is the fundamental nature of American education to not only teach the same content of each student, but to teach the same techniques with which to approach such truths. It is no fault of the teacher or the administrator, but is simply an unfortunate fact that cannot be avoided when attempting to simultaneously teach at least two dozen students. As a result of the public mass education system, individual thought is often suppressed in place of a well defined (and legally determined) academic curriculum. While the student gains knowledge and skills necessary for future success, …show more content…
When students confront this elimination of creative thought from the general populace, they may appear to overcompensate and pursue the artistic disciplines to an extent not acceptable for traditional schooling, thus building severe social and intellectual decisions between visual and performing arts students and those following a more “traditional” …show more content…
The pages, quite frankly, are not pretty. The concept of the independent notebook may be romantic, but the content itself lacks conventional aesthetic and beauty. There are countless erase marks, scribbles, mistakes, and errors. Most sketches in the notebook are not attractive, but instead fall short in their goal of capturing the subject through the lens intended. For each idea the notebook carries that may be brought to fruition in the future, there are five drawings and poems that are indeed technical failures. But the technical failure is far different than the creative one, for each new addition feeds into the creation of the next. Similarly, each error made in the lines of a math or science problem is analyzed, processed, and used in the future to improve one’s ability to complete logical progressions. The folds of paper between the cardboard covers contain each stage of development in the human conscious, the proverbial building blocks which must be relied upon to create a final academic product. Each essay handed in and each test completed is the culmination of years of compounding intellectual progress, and essentially act as facades which fail to represent the true developments the brain must travel through to come to such an understanding. If one wishes to