My thoughts on this video featuring Sir Ken Robinson...
Sir Ken Robinson is a very engaging and convincing speaker. I was interested in what he was speaking about throughout the whole video, but more importantly I was immersed in thought, considering that of which he was speaking. Robinson put the idea that schools, or more accurately, today's education system, does not sufficiently encourage education, in a very clear light by using ideas that are easily accessible by everyone. By this, I mean that he did not throw philosophical phrase after philosophical phrase at the audience. He was very straightforward with his point: in order to educate students for a future for which we may not be alive, we need to allow and nurture the emergence of their creativity, not just their academic knowledge, and not "educate them out of it".
Robinson touched on a few things that I found rather troubling. There is a theory that children do not grow into creativity, they grow out of it. This statement was not overly surprising, but the thought it provoked within me caught me off guard. I can personally vouch for the fact that we grow out of our creativity, and we are even educated out of it. And on a less severe but also truthful note, I can understand what he meant by many talented and creative people are being steered away from the things they love because there are no job prospects. When I was in elementary school, I was constantly being praised by my teachers for my writing. I wrote stories and poems all the time. I remember writing them for in-class work and would often have my writing read aloud by the teacher to the class as an example of good work. I would write on my own time...if I could recover the hard drive from our old Windows 95 computer, I would probably find about 50 finished and unfinished stories and poems that I wrote. I even won the Staples Canada short story-writing competition for Newfoundland when I was in grade 6. I truly loved it, and as young as I was, I was very good at it. When I got to junior high, however, writing became about essays and arguing points. Aside from a small number of creative writing activities I can remember doing, I stopped writing the way I used to. Any time I was asked as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up, after I grew out of the "I want to be a ballerina and a movie star" stage, I would say I wanted to be an author. More specifically, a children's author. As I got older, I was told how difficult it is to write something that could actually be published. Sadly, I cannot remember the last time I wrote a poem or story for my own enjoyment. To be honest, although I am really close to finishing my arts degree, I actually moved to education because of the ridiculous number of people that told me an arts degree was useless. I know I'm a good writer, but I've been made to feel that that is a useless commodity to have in today's society and job market. Robinson is truly disheartened by the number of young people who convince themselves that they are not as good at something as they think they are because they are told it is not a practical or useful skill to have. You go to school to get a degree to get a job...no one ever really emphasizes the fact that you should enjoy what you do or be able to put your own creative twist on what it is that you do. Education is certainly a way that I can be creative and now that I've learned so much about children and teaching them, I can see myself maybe attempting to be a children's author one day.
I found a couple of other things really resonated with me in Robinson's speech. I found the story about Gillian Lynne very thought-provoking. How many children have been in similar situations, and with the out-of-control diagnosis of ADHD today, have had their creativity and talents suppressed because they do not fit near the top of the hierarchy of education. I also found what he said about degrees these days (that students today go home after having obtained their degree and continue to play video games) all too familiar. I know a lot of people who have done just that, or are still working at their retail or food service jobs. Sadly, a lot of those people are teachers. But it's so true...my parents are both educated professionals, and neither had a difficult time breaking into their careers, and neither have had to switch due to lack of jobs available. Not even my mom, who has been teaching for almost thirty years. But now, there are hundreds and hundreds of unemployed teachers, arts majors and science majors floating around the province without work. I think that in some cases, not all but some, if these people knew how to bring their own creative flare to their profession, they would stand out from the crowd and stand a better chance at landing a position and gaining respect from colleagues and superiors. Unfortunately, the education system has suppressed creativity in a lot of ways.
A couple of points that I will take with me from this video are:
- We need to be careful that we use the gift of the human imagination wisely.
- Intelligence is diverse, dynamic and distinct.
- The education system tends to mine our minds for the same reason we mine the earth: for a particular commodity. This can be, in no way, beneficial for the future.
- We need to rethink the fundamental principles upon which we are educating our children.
- We need to educate a child's entire being because, even though we may not be around to see changes in the future, they will be, and they need to be prepared.
- We need to see our children for the hope that they are.
I would highly recommend this video to people who are in the education profession but even to young people who are concerned about what to do with their lives. The awful, anxiety-ridden first years of university when you are trying to figure out what to do and what degree will get you what kind of job, is still a very fresh wound for me. Ken Robinson is an extremely smart man and I learned a lot from him, even in this short 20-minute video.
"We can't prepare the future for our youth, but we can prepare our youth for the future."
- Theodore Roosevelt
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