Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Changing the way we educate

This is a lecture that my husband and I came across right after the birth of our daughter. At that particular time we had many discussions about what we could do for her to make sure that she would get the best possible education. We knew that this would mean we not only needed to find out what we could do to educate her but also what we could do to change our way of thinking. That's when we came across Sir Ken Robinson and a series of lectures that included thoughts and things we had never really taken the time to consider.

I think this video shows what we as future educators can do to change our ways of thinking about how we educate. For me the eye opening section was when he talks about how we need to change our "factory" school systems. Not all children the same age have the same abilities and not all children learn the same way so how can we conform all children to the same standards? We tend to stifle creativity and thinking outside the box so that we can mold our youth into the perfect test takers and students. What are your thoughts on this? What can we do to change our school systems, to promote more creativity when budget cuts are eliminating the art programs? Instead of trying to make all students the same why don't we help each student to learn and excel and what they are good at.

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing that it is stupid." Albert Einstein

If you liked this video you can watch another by Sir Ken Robinson HERE

5 comments:

  1. I absolutely loved the video and I love the quote from Albert Einstein. The part about children with ADHD especially interested me. My 9-year-old son was recently diagnosed with inattentive and impulsive ADHD. They told me there were three types, and this was the type he had. I had him tested because of behavioral problems he was having. When I took him to see the doctor, she asked me if I wanted to try therapy or medication to manage him. I was furious. He now sees someone else because I was very upset that she didn't even bother talking to me, she just asked me if I wanted him on meds. I'm not to say that some children do not need it, but it should not be the first option. My son is not on any meds at this point. The only way I will is when I feel that is the only thing that will help him because I've exhausted all his other options first. So thank you for sharing.

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  2. Thank you so much for posting this. I have been looking for this video for such a long time. This ties directly into our podcasting readings from Curriculum 21. We will share this on Thursday.

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  3. I'm happy to see that others enjoyed this lecture as much as I did. I encourage you to look him up on You Tube and TEDtv to see even more.

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  4. One of my all-time favorite Einstein quotes!

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