Response #4 Preach Brother Preach

Preach Brother Preach

            The words of Ken Robinson are profound. Unfortunately for those of us who share some of the same views as him or at least resonate with what he said about the need for reform in the education system around the globe, we will most likely be waiting quite a while before seeing anything implemented. There were many wonderful points brought to light by Sir Robinson, but one of the more profound ideas that stuck out to me was that around the would there are two kinds of people in the world, academic and non-academic. What makes this interesting to me is when he goes on to say that the academic people are often times recognized as the smart people and the non-academics are sadly seen as not smart people. Unfortunately we non-academics can end up being pretty down on ourselves for not being very bright because of the current paradigm of the education system of today.

            Ken talks in another video about how he believes we are all bourn with creativity, but because around the world math, science, and humanities are always the focus and the arts are left at the bottom we then beguine to leave our creativity behind along with our adolescence. That being said, even if students continued to go through their entire education with other children of the same age at least through high school an equal amount of emphasis should be placed on the arts. Ultimately when students are approaching collage they shouldn’t have a preconceived notion that what they like to do (if it’s an arts related craft) is a dead end and that no meaningful life’s work could come from it.

            If we could get to a point where we taught like this wouldn’t it even be beneficial in the “professional” world where thinking outside the box is key? Think about this, when Ken was explaining divergent thinking and talked about how divergent thinking produces more ways of use for a single item and how ninety eight percent of children tested at a genius level, don’t you think those are the kinds of people you would want working for your company in the marketing department? This is I’m sure only one of probably thousands of examples for why the education system should be restructured to emphasize the arts all the way through school.

            However, at the top of this entry I mentioned that even though this would be a wonderful to see come to pass, it is still far from happening. Why? Because as we read in the article Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn, before we can make any headway with what is being taught we have to make sure we have teachers to teach our students. Right now in New York and Providence Road Island nearly two thousand teachers have been told they will loose their jobs. Now, does that sound like we are anywhere close to even beguine thinking about a major restructuring of public education? I don’t think so federal spending may be tight but teaching is one area we can’t afford to cut back on.

Based on:

RSA – Changing Paradigms By Sir Ken Robinson

Do Schools kill creativity? By Sir Ken Robinson

Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn? By Trip Gabriel