With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.
Interpretation
Education should foster creativity and critical thinking rather than just producing specialists.
Ray Bradbury's quote critiques the educational system that focuses on creating individuals who excel in specific skills while neglecting the broader qualities of critical thinking and creativity. He suggests that as schools emphasize technical abilities over imaginative exploration, the term 'intellectual' has been devalued, likening it to a swear word due to its disconnect from practical and creative expression.
In practice
During a seminar on modern education, this quote can highlight the importance of fostering creativity.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
If you don't feel safe as a child, you can't learn.
Teenagers have more intense reading experiences because they've had fewer of them. It's like the first time you fall in love. You have a connection to that first person you fell in love with because it was so intense and unprecedented.
I read for growth, firmly believing that what you are today and what you will be in five years depends on two things: the people you meet and the books you read.
Books are not about passing time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, one just wishes one had more of it. If one wanted to pass the time one could go to New Zealand.
Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.
When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.
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