For each of the final two chapters ("For Love or Money" and "Making the Grade"), leave one response. These might be main ideas you took away, quotes you find interesting, concepts related to other things you have read, personal insights, or things with which you disagree. Just be sure to fully support your response.
Then find two responses from your classmates and comment on them.
I will be taking part in this assignment too, so you can see my responses. When your responses are up, I'll comment on them too.
Thanks
One take away I have from chapter 10 "For Love or Money" is the importance of having passions. If you don't find a passion that can sustain a career, that's fine. The key, though, is to develop passions that can then work to enhance your life.
ReplyDeleteWhen Robinson talks about the corporate rock band, this is an example. These musicians have no hope of every making it big. They will not be the next Rolling Stones or Pearl Jam. Rather, they enjoy playing music simply because it offers a diversion from their careers. This is far more fulfilling than what has befallen the rock bad, Anvil, whose award winning documentary is a fascinating view. These guys, now in the fifties, work dead end jobs (by their accounts, not mine, to just pay the bills) while hoping against hope that they can still make it big, despite playing shows in small bars with a handful of people.
When a show is over and the four people in attendance leave, the members of Anvil trudge back to their lives wishing they would have made it big back in the 1980's when their contemporaries did.
Contrast that with the members of a corporate rock band, who after a show, can still return to lucrative careers. They see their concerts as enhancing their lives.
In the final chapter, "Making the Grade," one line stood out to me the most: "In fact, in January 2004, the number of unemployed American college graduates actually exceeded the number of unemployed high school dropouts."
ReplyDeleteSomething is very wrong with that statistic. First, we are sending too many students to college without a clear understanding of what they want to do with their lives. Thus, they earn degrees without either being qualified for their professions or they lack the passion needed to excel in them.
It believe if we were to do a better job - as Mr. Zutz talked about in class - personalizing education to students and their passions and skills - we would have students going off to colleges - or entering the workforce - with a clearer idea of not only what they want to do with their lives, but also the skill and work ethic to excel.
In Chapter 10, "For Love or Money", is talking about how you can still have a passion even if you cannot gain a career from it. When you are really passionate about something the factor of money won't be as much of a concern. Yes it is awesome to also get paid for doing something you love, but that doesn't always happen. For many people leaving their current jobs to pursue their passions just isn't a practical position.
ReplyDelete"The word amateur derives from the Latin word amator, which means lover, devoted friend, or someone who is in avid pursuit of an objective." (page 2010). Many amateurs actually perform at a professional level at doing something they are passionate about. The only difference between being a professional and an amateur is that the professionals are getting paid for it.
Doing something because you love it, not because of the money it gives you, can actually fulfill you much more than any random job can.
** Page 210.
DeleteI completely agree. You can tell when you are doing something you aren't passionate about vs. something you are passionate about. It almost mentally drains you.
DeleteI agree. Doing something that you're interested in and good is important. Its important to have hobbies for things that you enjoy. It will help reenergize you.
DeleteYes! When you are doing something you really love all you care about is the joy and energy you get from it. This is why I also believe that if you do not have a job you are passionate about, you should have hobbies you are passionate about. Who knows maybe if you keep engaging in your passion that is outside of work, money could come from it one day and it could become your career.
DeleteI agree. You don't have to be a professional to preform at a professional level. Being an amateur is only different because your'e not getting paid for it
DeleteI agree! Just because you aren't technically a professional doesn't mean you haven't put in as much time or hard work as those who have made a career doing the same thing you do. Amateurs may not be getting paid but that doesn't mean they aren't as passionate.
DeleteTotally agree. Just because you aren't a "professional" doesn't mean you haven't worked as hard as people who are making a living doing it.
DeleteI agree completely! As long as you are doing what you love, it doesn't matter if you are a professional or not.
DeleteIn Chapter 11, "Making the Grade", one thing that stood out to me was the idea of how our education is so standardized. There is not a lot of room for creativity. The students must do everything specific to rules and regulations. The letter received from a seventeen-year-old student in New Jersey really got my attention. He talks about how many people are led to believe that academics are the most important thing in our lives. That getting high scores on these standardized tests is more important than looking outside of the box on what we can do with our lives. The boy tells a story in his letter about how he once poured his paintbrush cleaning water on top of a painting his teacher had said was "completed and ready to be graded." She did not approve. Why should one person be able to set boundaries and limitations on another's creativity? I believe that this approach on education is what makes academics boring and stressful to many of American students today. When we are forced to "stay inside the lines", it does not allow us to use the creativity of our minds. "The school and the culture separate the head from the body." (page 242.)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this. Why are teachers killing creativity, they should be encouraging it more than anything. Along with the quote at the end, I think that truly shows what school systems are doing.
DeleteI can't disagree with anything you said. Because our education is so standardized, so are the teachers. That doesn't help kids work with their creative side.
DeleteI wish that I could disagree with this, but I can't. Earlier in the book it said that we are educated out of creativity and it is totally accurate but I wish it wasn't.
DeleteThe thing I took most out of "For Love or Money" is to make sure you enjoy what you do regardless of money. If your passion isn't your job have something recreational that it, or better yet have a passion for both.
ReplyDelete"Personal happiness comes as much from the emotional and spiritual fulfillment that this can bring as from the material needs we meet from the work we may have to do." I loved this quote! Money doesn't mean happiness. Maybe you can buy a huge house and a fancy car, but at the end of the day having a passion for something and loving what you do will better satisfy your happiness.
The idea of doing something through pure enjoyment also stuck with me in this chapter. Many of the examples of people had things on the side they do without being payed. Being amateur simply means no paycheck. Money doesn't always have to be the focus, if you find something you love to do, do it because its your passion.
I honestly would go a step further and say that if you are truly in your element, you will find a way to make money.
DeleteI disagree. Quoting myself, "There is no such thing as a happy homeless person". Following one's passions is important, but one needs to follow one of one's interests that will provide financial stability. No matter how far you are into your "element", you can't make money impersonating a tree.
DeleteI agree. Doing what you love doesn't mean you have to get paid well or even get paid for it at all. Doing what you love can just be a recreational activity for when you're not working.
DeleteI agree. You do not have to get paid very much for doing what you love. The satisfaction of doing it will be enough.
DeleteYou also need to be realistic and realize you aren't going to be happy digging through trashes just to find food. You have to find a happy medium if so fits.
DeleteIn "For Love or Money" I thought it was really interesting that you be in your element doing multiple things. That was the case for Dr. Suzanne Peterson, she teaches business at a university by day and at night she dances professionally. I really like that you don't have to pick one passion over another. They can coexist with each other.
ReplyDelete"Making the Grade" Brought up another, sometimes overlooked side of the education questioning. Teachers seem to be getting their passions just as suppressed as the students they teach. I'll be the first one to admit that even though I knew that could be something that was happening, I didn't think it had that much of an effect on us. After reading that chapter, I realized that a lot of the time we aren't getting to see what the teacher actually knows and is passionate about. It seems that a lot of the time, we are getting taught what the teacher has been told/made to teach us.
I agree with your "For Love or Money." I think it is so cool that you don't have to pick one of your passion, when you can pursue both.
DeleteI agree with your Idea on teachers losing track of their passion when they are teaching us. Some teachers get so focussed on their students getting good grades or passing standardized tests that they seem to be forgetting what they are really here to do. Teach, not fill our heads with information that we will forget in two weeks.
DeleteI agree with "For Love of Money". I like the idea that you don't just have to have one element. You may not even realize how many things you have a passion for so because you think you can only have one element but in truth you can have as many as you feel.
DeleteAt the end of the 10th chapter, the author talks about how element will not help you become rich or famous. I think there is something wrong with the idea that pursuing one's dream detracts from wealth. No one should follow a dream that does not give them a proper life style. No one should follow a dream that is financially irresponsible, there is no such thing as a happy homeless person. A wise choice would be to look at all of one's interests and take the interest that gives the best livelihood. One should like their job, but that doesn't mean that one should do the thing they love the most as a job.
ReplyDeleteIn the final chapter the author talks about conformity like its something awful that strikes at the core of people. Its an excuse, those that are creative and are good at something will pursue that passion relentlessly. Conformity stops only those that are not truly passionate about something. Those with talent and drive will go on to do great things regardless of societies' viewpoint. Conformity is a great tool to weed out people who enjoy something from those who have passion, talent, and drive. The world doesn't need a million mediocre painters, but the world does need accountants, architects, engineers, farmers, and civil servants.
I completely agree that many people start to look at just the fact that doing what you love instead of the money. So people are saying that they don't get happy going on vacation or buying a new car? If you don't have money you will never get to explore or buy things to repay your hard work.
DeleteI like how you put that conforming is a way to separate the people who like to do something, from those who have a passion and drive for it.
DeleteChapter 10 "For Love or Money", I took the most out of it is that if you have something you are passionate about then pursue it no matter how much you will make. Or recreational your passion that gives you joy, if it is not your job. Like the cars salesman, Bill. He had a passion for photography, but he said, "but there isn't enough money in it." He made his job have some of his creativity with his photographs by the way he help customers choose paint samples and when they get there cars.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11, "Making the Grade", one thing that caught my attention would be that teachers can't really teach what they want they have so many standardized rules. Like the eight year old boy said about his teacher, "hadn't done any teaching." Her response was that her school was making teachers focus more on preparing for the standardized test. This eight year boy, probably in third grade, is being taught about how to prepare for standardized test already. That shows how much the school systems are based on just test. Which I think is wrong just to base everything on test. Personally, I am not the best test taker but there is so much pressure to pass all these test; but there is other ways to show your intelligence.
One quote that stood out to me was, "The key to this transformation is not to standardize education but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in a environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passion." The pressure of standardize education needs to be transformed.
I agree with "For Love or Money". I like the idea of having 2 passions in your life.
DeleteI agree with the "Making the Grade" because I think that teachers have to fit in a box so bad that it never gets real original anymore with some classes.
DeleteI agree that having something passionate to do on the side is a good idea. You're making a living along with having a life.
DeleteI liked the quote at the end! I think that education should be personalized for each individual student. Every kid has their own special talent, and I don't think it is fair to judge their academic skills on standardized tests and education. Some children are more academically skilled, and others may be better at art or athletics. It is not fair to judge our students talents by academic tests.
Delete"The creative outlet he found in his photography made him that much more patient and helpful in his day job" This is gold. I know that when I do a lot of what I enjoy doing during the week, like hang out with friends or work out, I do better in school and work.
ReplyDelete"For Love or Money" really focussed on the fact that our elements do not always have to be a job. I strongly agree that If we are not really in love with our job and it is not what we are truly passionate about, then we should pursue hobbies that we are passionate about outside of work. It should be a priority to make time for the things we love to do outside of work and school on a daily basis.
I agree with you! Everyone should definitely have something that will give them the satisfaction and happiness of doing something they love. If it is really a passion of yours, you will find time to do it. Being in your element, even if it is treated just as a hobby, will give you the motivation to do well in other work as well.
Delete"Sometimes, getting away from school is the best thing that can happen to a great mind." I love this quote from "Making the Grade". It is so true that many people become successful when they leave the school. When they no longer have to prepare for a standardized test that may have nothing to do with what they want to do with the rest of their life or with their career. There are plenty of examples in this book of people not doing well in school or not enjoying school then being very successful after they get out of it and begin to learn in a more creative way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Robinson when he says that there are many schools today that focus just on the first and last step of education; curriculum and assessment. I believe that many teachers do feel that they have to get their students to just pass these tests, so they totally skip the teaching phase and just give practice tests and focus on skills that are not very important.
That quote from "Making the Grade" was one of my favorites from the whole book. School is only a small part of our lives and although we learn valuable lessons, we learn so much more in the "real world." Standardized tests put everyone in groups and makes students feel like they are not intelligent when in fact we are all intelligent just not all in the same way
DeleteThe thing I liked most about "For Love or For money" is the explanation between amateur and professional. Most people think that when someone is an amateur, it means that they aren't very good at something or they are just beginning at it, instead of a person who does it only for fun. And when they think professional, they think of someone who is the best at something, instead of someone who does something for a living.
ReplyDeleteIn “Making the Grade”, I thought that the information about the cram schools was pretty interesting. The fact that they start placing you in different schools depending on how smart you are by the time most kids are just beginning to walk and talk. I thought it isn’t really fair that you are thrown into a less advanced school because you haven’t developed as fast as the others.
I agree with you on the "Making the Grade" part of you comment because it isn't fair that the classes you take are picked when you are young. Every person develops at a different rate and we should not be judged by that.
DeleteI am not a fan of a "grading system" like Hannah said, people develop at different rates and we shouldn't be judged on what we know but how we improve from where we started.
DeleteQuote from chapter 10 - "Discovering the element doesn't promise to make you richer. Quite the opposite is possible, actually . . . "
ReplyDeleteQuote from chapter 11 - "Education should be one of the main processes that take us to the element. Too often, though, it serves the opposite function."
From these chapters I learned that your passions many not make much money but is still good to have. Also I learned that people today get caught up with education so much that they lose focus on their goals and stop doing them.
I was amazed by how many jobs are unavailable for students who have four year diplomas! This leads to more competition in the workplace. Any employer would rather have someone who is creative, than someone who their told and nothing else. Schools are not helping with creativity, worse yet they are draining it out of us.
ReplyDeleteThe restaurant analogy is another part that stuck out to me. "The future for education is not in standardizing but in customizing; not in promoting groupthink and "deindividuation" but in cultivating the real depth and dynamism of human abilities of every sort." Schools should not be like Mcdonald's where, wherever you go its the same. They should be unique and teach differently to all types of students. We need to make school interest everyone in some way, leading them to their element.
Chapter 10, “For Love or Money”, is about having a passion, but not getting paid for it. If it turns out that your career just isn’t something that you are very passionate about, have a hobby that really captures your interests. The car salesman that Robinson talks about is a perfect example. He sells and leases cars, but that is not his passion. His passion is taking pictures of surfing, which he does on the weekends. He cannot do this for a job because it won’t pay the bills, but that doesn’t stop him from doing it. Sometimes you can have a career and a hobby that you are passionate about. For example, Dr. Suzanne Peterson is a management professor, and she is a dancer.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11, “Making the Grade”, is about schools changing the way they teach. Teaching simply to make sure the students pass the standardized tests doesn’t help the kids at all. All over the world students are being forced to do these practices for the “big test”. High school, especially, is when students are becoming adults and trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives. They can’t do this if all they learn about is how to pass some big test that shouldn’t even matter.
I agree with your opinion in standardized tests. These should only be used as a checkpoint for where students are at with the curriculum. Say for instance a school tries out a new way of teaching a subject. The test can be used to see if it helped the kids based on previous scores.
DeleteI actually enjoyed reading chapter ten. We’ve read of all these success stories that make people famous in their fields. Now, this shows you that even if your Element isn’t your career, it can be just as uplifting. It can be a simple hobby you do on the side. Like the photographer at the car dealership, nobody really needs to know about it. Finding your element is more about the effect it has on you than others.
ReplyDelete“To be in your Element, it isn’t necessary to drop everything else and do it all day, every day.” I’ve noticed how most people don’t think about that. They think to be in your Element, you have to be making money from it and it has to be your full time career. Robinson pointed out that for most people, it’s completely impractical. It’s probably the most relatable passage from the book.
I agree that your passion can be a hobby as well. A job, hobby, or both, regardless I think some place in your life there has to be something you do that you are passionate about.
DeleteI agree that you don't have to be in your element all day everyday. If you were, you might get sick of it.
Delete“Making the Grade” definitely had good points in it, diversity is a good thing. However, it’s not a calamity if you do conform in some aspects of life. There are successful people who did well in school. Robinson can get extreme while talking about schools. It’s just like juggling work and your Element, only now work is replaced with school. You can do both in the majority of cases.
ReplyDeleteI’m not disagreeing with schools stifling creativity. That is by far the biggest issue with the school system. Standardized tests make teachers standardized as well. They lost their passions along they way, too. It’s not helping anyone.
Chapter 10 was mainly about pursuing you passion whether it's as a career or a hobby as an amateur or a professional. A quote/phrase that stood out to me was on page 213, "To be in your Element, it isn't necessary to drop everything and do it all day, every day." It sums up the point of the chapter. Whether you are pursuing you passion as a career or as just a hobby if it's important to you then you are going to be good at it. Whether a person is a Professional or an Amateur they both have their strengths and if they're passionate then it really doesn't matter.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11 is about how education kills creativity and conforms people. Students are pressured to pass standardized tests but not pressured to do things that they enjoy or be creative. The reason people lose their passion is because they are not encouraged to pursue it, because they will "never make a living" doing it. The chapter also talks about how some of the world's most successful people weren't good in school, it didn't mean they weren't intelligent but they refused to conform and wanted to live their lives doing what they loved.
I agree with your chapter 11 response. Schools don't encourage us pursue our passions, instead they are trying to conform everyone to be the same and learn the same things.
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ReplyDeleteChapter 10: "For the Love of Money" The main point of this chapter was doing something as either a hobby or career. Just because you don't make a living off of it doesn't mean you haven't but in as much time and effort as those who do make a living off of it or as they say, are "Professionals". A good quote from this chapter was "To be in your element, it isn't necessary to drop everything and do it all day every day." I think that sums up the entire chapter. You can truly be passionate about something but you don't need to make it an everyday thing, you can do it when you want to which is nice.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11: Main point is education kills creativity, which I totally agree with. Teacher's are to focused on students passing standardized tests and doing the same thing day in day out where it's to the point of basically running cattle through a chute. You go the only place you can, which is down the same path every time and you never get a chance to express yourself and discover who you are or what your truly passionate about. Some of the world's most successful people didn't thrive in schools, not because they were dumb but because they thought differently about things and got out of their comfort zone and eventually led them to the success that they have today.
Chapter 10 has a lot to do with the title of it. Are you doing what you are doing for the love or for the money? This chapter talks a lot about doing what you love, and what you're passionate about no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the quote, "Music is elemental in his life, and in music, he has found his element. In the truest meaning of the word, Gabriel us an amateur musician. And he wouldn't have it any other way." This just shows that to be in your element, doesn't mean that you have to be an expert at it.
In Chapter 10 "For Love or Money", I like the idea that you can have a job which is not necessarily your passion, but still do what you love on the side. Because let's face it, a lot of the time what we love to do won't make us the kind of money we need to live on, and we may not even be able to make a job out of it. I think it would be nice to be able to make money and still have time to do what you really want to do.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 11 "Making the Grade", I was really inspired by Richard Branson. At sixteen he knew what he wanted to do with his life, and he decided that school wouldn't help him reach his goals. He went on, without even a high school diploma, to become a very successful entrepreneur, who is now worth billions.
In chapter ten I liked that it switched things up, all book we have been reading about all of these stories that start off bad then turn super good. This is totally different in the sense that it is saying that yeah it sucks that our profession and our element are usually different areas. We have to find a balance, if I have something that I am looking forward to doing on the weekend with my friends I do so much better in school because it's not all work or play.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter eleven it said, "Typically, policymakers try to take control of the curriculum and specify exactly what students should learn." To me this is saying that teachers aren't teaching what they want, they are just following the standards. If teachers could teach what they wanted then I think they would have an easier time getting into it and everyone would enjoy it more.
Chapter 10 - "To be in your Element, it isn't necessary to drop everything else and do it all day, every day" I think that this fits a lot of people. I think that if you shut out everything and only do the one thing for a long time you will eventually get bored. You need to have other activities or hobbies to mix it up.
ReplyDeleteChapter 11- "Sometimes, getting away from school is the best thing that can happen to a great mind" School is so repetitive, go to each class, listen to the teacher, and receive homework. There is so much pressure on kids about doing well in school, get good grades, do your homework, go to school, and attend college. Doing the same thing everyday way over half a year doesn't let your mind explore and do things that you are interested in. We don't know what the future is going to hold. With technology growing at the rate it is a good portion of the jobs kids right now are going to have don't exist. Why are we preparing our student for the future when we don't know what it's going to hold.
Chapter 11 talks about education. As we have heard multiple times before in this book, school kills creativity. Some people didn't do so well in school, not because they were dumb, it just wasn't their element. The schools try to conform people to fit in to a certain group. Everyone has to be straight A students, and if you're not, you are a bad kid, at least that is what the schools try to make you believe. The people that he mentioned in the book, decided not to conform and to really seek out what they were good at.
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