In his latest TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson outlines three key elements which must exist for the human mind to flourish — and how current education culture works against them.
This is what I got from his sobering, humorous and yet inspiring presentation:
The three principles crucial to the development of the human mind are:
- Individuality
- Curiousity
- Creativity
Yet, the current school system works very hard to eliminate all three of them, or at best, smother them. You don’t have to look far to notice that ‘schooling’ today is all about conformity, compliance and standardisation.
Sir Ken say it doesn’t have to be this way. I vehemently agree.
His solution? Design education for individuals, elevate the profession of teaching, and devolve responsibility from central agencies to schools to get the job done.
He makes a good point – most teaching today does not necessarily involve learning. A bit like dieting does not always involve losing weight. A teacher’s primary role is to facilitate learning – NOT, as with most school systems today, prepare students for tests.
It’s also odd – when something works outside the current educational system, we call it ‘alternative education.’ Huh, what’s up with that?
What do you think?
