BROADCASTS.com

When we think about the Renaissance, we think of a great flowering in artistic creativity and intellectual\xa0innovation; we think about the beautiful paintings and sculptures of Michelangelo, the astute discoveries of Copernicus, the timeless plays of Shakespeare.\n\nIronically though, this great creative flowering was spurred by men who were educated under a system that, by our modern lights, can seem rather rigid and rote.\xa0\n\nMy guest today unpacks this seeming\xa0paradox. His name is Scott Newstok, and he's a professor of English and the author of\xa0How to Think Like Shakespeare: Lessons From a Renaissance\xa0Education, in which he uses the Bard as a jumping off point to explore broader insights into matters of the mind. We begin our conversation with the ways Scott thinks our modern\xa0educational\xa0system is lacking, and how students' approach to learning has changed over the years. We then discuss how the Renaissance\xa0model of education, with its emphasis on language and verbal fluency, provides possibilities\xa0for strengthening our reading, writing, speaking, and thinking skills and making their refinement a lifelong habit. We delve into how artists and thinkers in the Renaissance thought about originality differently than we do, and how they believed that imitating and even copying the work of others can actually help you find your own voice. And we discuss how Shakepeare's sonnets demonstrate the way in which constraints can counterintuitively\xa0enable creativity. We end our conversation with how you can incorporate\xa0Renaissance thinking into your day to day life.\n\nGet the show notes at aom.is/renaissancethinking.