Blog Post #10

What can we learn from Sir Ken Robinson?

I would like to start off this blog post by saying, "Wow!". I have loved and learned a lot from all of the videos that we have watched in this class, but this one has taught me the most. In this video, Bring On the Education Revolution, Sir Ken Robinson explained how their is a climate crisis for human resources and that we make very poor of our talents. He said that so many people endure their lives instead of enjoying it and are just waiting for the weekend. This stuck out to me so much because I hear people complaining all the time about their job and how they can't wait for the weekend to get here. People nowadays go through their lives simply just going on with it and they get no pleasure from what they do.

Sir Ken Robinson explained that every education system in the world is being reformed and that is not enough. Being reformed is no use because that is simply just improving a broken model. Our education systems don't need to be reformed, what we need is a revolution in education. He explained that their are things we are enthralled to in education like the idea of linearity. We view education as something that starts here and you go through a track and if you do everything right you will end up set for the rest of your life. He said that life is the opposite of that; its not linear but organic. We should be creating our lives as we explore our talents and find out what we are passionate about. We should be doing something that we really love. We as humans have became obsessed with linearity and think the point of education is getting you to college.

I loved the story he told about the guy he met when he went to his book signing in San Francisco. The guy told Sir Ken Robinson that he was a fireman and had wanted to be one for his entire life. He explained how when he was in school he had one teacher that told him that he was throwing his life away if all he wanted to do with it was become a fireman. The teacher told him that he should go to college and become a professional person; that he had great potential and was wasting his talent to do this. The guy said the same day the teacher said this to him he applied for fire service school and was accepted. He explained to Sir Ken Robinson how he was thinking about the teacher that had said this to him during his speech at the book signing. He said about six months ago the teacher and his wife were in a car wreck and he saved both of their lives by pulling them out of the car and performing CPR on the teacher. This story is so inspiring to me and I agree with Sir Ken Robinson that this story shows the fact that human communities depend on a diversity of talent and not just a singular conception of ability. Sir Ken Robinson explained how the heart of this challenge is to reconstitute our sense of ability and intelligence.

I loved how Sir Ken Robinson explained the issue of conformity and how we have built our education systems on a model of fast food where everything is standardized. He said that we have sold ourselves into this model and it's bringing down our spirits and energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies. This so true because no one is the same and everyone has different talents. Your passions are important also because you can be really good at something you don't care for. This is true for me, I am really good at cooking but I don't enjoy it. Being that I'm not passionate about cooking I would not take the career path of being a chef. We as educators need to inspire our students to do what they love. If you are doing something you love, an hour will feel like five minutes and you won't be waiting for the weekend.

The last thing that I would like to point out that Sir Ken Robinson said was that we have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process - that it is an organic process. Educators can't predict the outcome of human development, all we can do is act like a farmer and correct the conditions under which they will flourish. We need to encourage our students to explore their talents and find their passion for what they love. If you are doing what you love, you will not have to work a day in your life. We can do this as educators by using the technologies combined with our teaching talents to revolutionize education.