Blog #2
I love that Sir Ken Robinson added humor to his speech. To me I personally think that when someone does that, it helps the audience want to continue listening to them. It makes it sound more like the speaker wants to connect with their audience. His speech is a great critique of the factory-style, standard approach to education that so very frequently suppresses creativity and individuality. His reference to a "Death Valley" so beautifully describes how schools create a barren ground for learning where students are not permitted to bring to full bloom their unique talents and interests.
Robinson's emphasis on personalized instruction and cultivating a love of learning rings very strongly. He argues that teaching is not about shaping raw, young children into a preconceived, narrowly defined form, but about nurturing a natural curiosity and creativity innate in raw, young children. This is a mental gear-shift, from a view of education as a means of producing subservient laborers to a view of teaching as a job of producing well-informed, active people.
Finally, Robinson's appeal is to create an active world from schooling such that students are empowered to craft their own fate and contribute to the world. This is a compelling and difficult vision, and it challenges teachers, policymakers, and communities to transition to a more humane and personalized version of education.
As you've figured out by now, Sir Ken Robinson is a favorite of mine. I love what he says about curiosity being the engine to achievement. If we fostered more curiosity than compliance in schools, our students would thrive. Another statement that resonates with me is that children 'prosper best with a broad curriculum that celebrates their various talents, not just some of them'. You've already heard me say that learning is not pizza and teaching is not a delivery system. Our schools cannot be greater than the teachers they employ. We need to invest in our teachers because our teachers invest in our students. Death Valley isn't dead; it's dormant. Under the right conditions, Death Valley flourishes. Under the right conditions, our students will thrive.
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