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Sir Ken Robinson & Creativity
Part of Town Square Delaware’s August Education Series.
Many of the contributors you will hear from during TSD’s Education Series this month are on the front lines of education – teachers, students, building staff, administrators and more. In those roles, education reform is a matter of degrees, of realistic reform and of hope. As they carry out their challenging and rewarding daily mission, they’re often aiming for a slight change in one direction that may, in their opinion, improve the chances for young minds to flourish.
I am not on the front lines of education reform. In my role as a layperson and parent, I can afford to rise up to the 30,000-foot level and envision a complete revolution in education; a reform whose end result looks nothing like the system we now have. I could go on and on about our deadened, 19th-century, assembly-line education system, but in the end, I could never, ever change paradigms the way Sir Ken Robinson did in this TED Talk from 2006. So, in that spirit, I present that talk to you today.
John Young
August 2, 2011 at 11:29 am
Great RSA animate of Sir Ken here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&w=640&h=390
John Young
August 2, 2011 at 11:30 am
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U]
Anonymous
August 2, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Thanks, John. I almost included that in the original post, so I’m glad you posted it here.
Elizabeth L.
August 2, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Just found this the other day and have been somewhat obsessed with it.
Elizabeth L.
August 2, 2011 at 1:10 pm
I am a PTA mom, and very interested in all aspects of ed reform (I wouldn’t say I am “anti” anything, but I have my leanings) and I think there is more innovation potential (and happening) within our current public school structure than people realize. With a huge, diverse populace…standards are necessary, as in all things. However I’m not sure standards (ie. a strong curriculum, emphasis on equitable situations) and standardization (ie. testing w/consequences) are the same thing. I wonder how Sir Ken would address that? Our current public school system isn’t as bad as ed-solution marketers would have you believe, but no one will dispute that there are some very broken things about it. What those are will depend on who you talk to and what they believe the key goals of eduction to be!
Anonymous
August 2, 2011 at 1:17 pm
It’s also important to realize that this talk was 5 years ago, and that there have been positive developments since then. I think that hanging the entire fate of the education system on standardized testing can never end well, unless of course you can standardize the children so they’re all the same, come from the same background, live in the same environment, etc. So unless we’re giving the tests to robots, it will never be an ideal situation, and you’ll end up with more situations like the Atlanta scandal as we move forward.
I also believe that there are some good things happening in schools, but I remain convinced that the basic structure of the education system as conceived decades ago is fatally flawed for the current age. But we can all disagree on that.
Thanks for your comment!
Elizabeth L.
August 2, 2011 at 6:26 pm
You’re very welcome.
I know one fundamental, structural thing I’d love to see change is the year being built around an agrarian calendar. OOF! Awkward & unnecessary.