... an admirable tool that humans are born with, yet has become dull with the centuries.
And that is a very romantic way to see it. While a trait like this is quite admirable I believe it is a "step two" in learning rather than a natural thing that just happens all on it own. Learning is complex, it is individual and it is influenced by the time and surrounding of the student's life. And yes that sentence is a huge understatement but it is a fact and it had to be said, as a disclaimer you know.
In class there has been a slight problem of miscommunication between the professor and the students, we all went in with certain, unreal, expectations about how the other would behave, so of course there was a clash. I do have to mention the fact that when we were finally forced to sit down and talk to each other a lot of the questions and misunderstanding cleared up and we were finally understanding each other a bit better.
To explain his point of view better the professor sent a reading that spoke of what he has attempted to teach us:
Team work, as architects we will work in teams all of our professional life and we have to be able to keep up with the dynamics that develop it those situations. Learning to keep the identity of a project while conforming to the changes a client will force up us. To be independent thinkers that don't need the professor to make decisions or feel confident in their designs. Architects that can analyze, understand and question theory of design in other to create new things. Allowing changes of perspective that can show you new relationships, see different angles, make associations and form patterns to generate new ideas.
To simplify that program to an elementary school level we students have to "think big and do". I get it, we have to be independent, knowledgeable, creators that can express ideas and make decisions, whilst sharing the podium with a number of other members. We have to be able to listen and adapt, contrary to rejecting other ideas or forgoing your own completely, yet we also cannot become too attached to our own creations.
What the professor is trying to do, honestly is quite a feat, I agree with the ideals and strongly believe that the issue (in my case) was not the ideals but the execution. This is not easily achieved and we are only second year students that really don't know enough of anything yet and are too afraid, the fall looks a lot deeper from were we are standing it makes it all that much harder to jump.
