Teacher-rated citizenship traits are inversely related to creativity and mental flexibility.

Evidence

In a liber­ ated educational encounter, we would expect these traits to embody some combination of diligence, social popularity, creativity, and mental flexibil­ ity. Yet statistical analysis of the Holland data reveals a strikingly different pattern. Students who are ranked by their teachers as high on Citizenship and Drive to Achieve are indeed more likely to be diligent (e.g., they arc high on such measures as Deferred Gratification, Perseverance, and Con­ trol) and socially popular (e.g., they are high on Social Leadership and Popularity). But they are, in fact, significantly below average on measures of creativity and mental flexibility (e.g., they are low on such measures as Cognitive Flexibility, Complexity of Thought, Originality, Creativity, and Independence of Judgment). Moreover, further statistical analysis shows that these same traits of creativity and mental flexibility are directly penal­ ized in terms of school grades, holding constant test scores, Citizenship, The conclusions from this body of data seem inescapable. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 510

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Education’s economic function operates through personality formation, not skills — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 214; Schools reward discipline and subordinacy regardless of their effect on achievement — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 505; Rewarded school traits correlate negatively with creativity among elite students — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 509