Sir Ken Robinson animated

Here’s a great example of how visualisation enhances a very good talk by Sir Ken Robinson;

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U]

Some of the most disturbing parts:

  • Schools are trying to educate children like they did in the past, and consequently alienating millions of kids who don’t see any purpose in what they do in school.
  • Ritalin is overprescribed (in USA). We shouldn’t be sedating our kids, we should be waking them up to what they have inside themselves. They live in the most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth; they’re being besieged with information that calls for their attention from every platform, and they are getting distracted from comparatively boring stuff at school.
  • Schools are still organised on factory lines. We still educate our children by batches in age groups. Why is the most important thing kids have in common is how old they are. It’s essentially about conformity and standardisation.
  • Kids’ scores for divergent thinking deteriorate the older they become mainly because they become educated to accept that there’s only one answer and that you don’t copy.

Two concluding points by Ken Robinson:

  • Collaboration is the stuff of growth.
  • It’s mostly about the culture, the habits of our institutions.

What does this say to  me?

We can’t improve kids’ learning in schools by doing what we are already trying to do inside the current system. We can only improve their learning by changing the culture of schools, by changing the ways we do things – not within the current setup we have which is clearly not working because our teachers are really trying. What we need is a whole school system change which will discard the outdated factory model. I think this talk explains why we are trying so hard and yet failing on the whole.

What do you think?

Read about RSA here. How is it I hadn’t heard of RSA Animate before? It really does bring discourse to life.

Thanks to Sheryl A. McCoy for the link to this video.

2 thoughts on “Sir Ken Robinson animated”

  1. Tania, I totally agree with you! We are doomed if we continue to try to change from within – though that is difficult to admit. We are beyond needing reform and should be pressed to transform. It is difficult to see much change though when what is promoted as such is ‘lipstick on a pig’ in most cases.

    Though I try to stay positive and initiate/participate in activities that move learners in a ‘revolutionary’ way, there’s still so much resistance – even from teacher who are trying! Fear of the unknown and how such transformation may impact us personally has a strong hold. A couple of years ago, I remember hearing Will Richardson ask how we should go about changing our schools: from within the current system or by ‘starting all over’. The majority couldn’t fathom starting anew, but I really wonder if that is the only way!

    Thank goodness for Sir Ken and other inspirational folks who continue to stretch our thinking and encourage our ‘change’ conversations and actions!

    1. Marie, thankyou for your comments. I like the expression ‘lipstick on a pig’!
      I feel helpless every day at school. Sometimes I’m encouraged by small changes but overall I wonder what they’re worth when I see the boredom, at best compliance, irrelevance. I wonder what will tip this system over the edge.

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