Ken Robinson Take 2

Sir Ken Robinson Bring on the Learning Revolution!

            This speech by Ken Robinson was probably my favorite TED video that we were assigned to watch this week.  I found that after watching his previous talk that I really enjoyed his humor that he peppered through the talks and how he was so human with his thoughts and stories.  He talks about his family, his own experience and the direction that he believes the world of education should be going.  This 2^nd TED video from Ken Robinson continued on his ideas of encouraging human talents because we are in a crisis of losing those human resources through not using them.  The speech is focused on how to create a revolution in the world of education not just evolving it to fit with the times because evolution does not make it new it just changes it in certain places.  We have to begin to trust what we do not know, go into the darkness towards what will be a brighter future, but too many people fear the unknown and are not willing to take that leap of faith towards a better educational world. 

We as a society are very used to staying in our comfort zone.  If we are not willing to step outside of what is comfortable than we will never be able to change the way we teach and what we teach; in order for this revolution to work there needs to be people who are willing to make a trail where there was not one previously.  Robinson talks about how education is a track towards the rest of our lives, but who is creating that track, is it a group of highly educated, well paid people who are deciding what will be necessary for the rest of the student’s lives? How are they supposed to know what is best for the next generation if they are so set in their own ways and how they believe education should be taught?  With the generation that is in school now they will never understand what it means to listen to a tape or ever know what it was like to watch a VHS and actually have to rewind the tape to the beginning, the world now is changing at such a rapid pace and to believe that the education “track” will be able to hold every student’s mind is just absurd.  I know that when I was in school the “track” was elementary school, then middle school, high school, and then college.  This is not the track for everyone just look at someone like Bill Gates, he jumped off that track and hasn’t looked back since. There is talk of the school system operating on a fast food model, where everything is made exactly the same but according to Robinson we must move away from this fast food model and towards a more organic process.  As a teacher we need to prepare our students for the future which is unknown but certain and also prepare them for the present.