I’m writing this to record my apprehension about my upcoming “Self-Designed Assignment.”
Originally, I wanted to complete this “model project” by the end of the summer, so that students would be able to reference it while doing their own work. However, I didn’t quite realize how little time I’d have this summer: I leave my house for my first job at 8 o’clock in the morning, return home from second job around 10 o’clock at night. Then I go for my run, which sometimes takes two or more hours. So...very little time to get work done. I think that I’ll certainly be able to maintain an accelerated pace, and therefore continue to provide a model for the students, but my end date has been pushed.
Anyway, no matter how the overall schedule works out, I’ve been working on this project for three weeks now, which means that very soon I’m going to have to do a “Self-Designed Assignment.” Now, I have no doubt that I could produce something substantial to mark my progress. However, I don’t want to produce just anything. I want this to be a model project, something that the students will be able to draw inspiration from. So, I feel like this needs to be something grand. Unfortunately, I’m not very creative.
These assignments are supposed to be “wrapped in the 5Cs.” I fancy myself to be very strong in the areas of critical thinking and communication. I’m less strong in the areas of curiosity and collaboration. And I’m weakest in the area of creativity. Now, some people might be tempted to use this project to work on their weaknesses (or at least say so). I think that this approach is unwise. If you’re good at one thing, and bad at another thing, I believe that there’s more to be gained by honing the skill you’re good at than trying to improve at the thing you’re bad at. If you’re horrible at something, then you could probably spend a considerable amount of time practicing that skill before you get to a point where you’re merely bad at that thing. Whereas if you dedicated that considerable amount of time to practicing the skill that you’re already good at, there’s a potential to move into an upper echelon of people with that skill. It’s more valuable to be an expert at piano and unable to play the violin than to be mediocre at both instruments. This is a mutated form of the law of comparative advantage. Productivity is increased through specialization. Therefore, I don’t think that I’m going to stress much about my lack of creativity.
So, my assignments will likely focus on the other four Cs. This doesn’t mean that my assignments are going to lack creativity entirely. After all, I have a very loose definition of creativity, closer to what someone else would call originality. So everything I produce could be labelled creative. I’m just not going to consciously become more creative in the colloquial sense of artistic. I feel that this is an entirely appropriate course of action. I just wonder how impressive my assignment can be without some artistic creativity. Even the most captivating essays are just words on paper.
My other concern is deciding what content to include in this first assignment. During the past month I’ve read almost 900 pages of an economics treatise. I obviously can’t include everything I’ve learned in this one assignment. How does one embody “economic theory” in one paper (if that’s what I produce)?
In short, I’m stressing a little bit about this assignment.
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