Sir Ken Robinson; Bring on the Learning Revolution
I know this sounds corny, but I wanted to thank Sir Ken Robinson and basically hug him after this talk. It was amazing to hear and I was laughing out loud for most of it (making my husband wonder whether I was actually doing homework).
For a while now, I have been having a personal crisis with my teaching career – of course in my last couple semesters of my Master’s program. Go figure. It is not that I do not want to work in education, on the contrary I love working with students and watching them learn and enjoy learning. I remember days of student teaching and substituting and running home excited to tell my husband or someone else that I helped a student learn something and that the student enjoyed the learning experience.
My problem seems similar to Sir Ken Robinson’s. It seems that our education system has not worked for years, even decades by now. I continuously think about how many researchers have found problems with the educational system, even as early as the Industrial Revolution, and still we have yet to change anything with that system. Students continue to trudge through school and learn in the same ways. Ideas abound about how to change the educational system, but it seems that we have become so comfortable with the system that we hesitate to change anything about it.
So what do we do? Is there to be a revolution, as Robinson suggests? If so, I would love to see the ideas for it. I admit, I used to be more of a traditionalist but experience has made me into more of a progressive thinker. We cannot continue to educate students the same way because our world is changing constantly. This revolution will take a lot if it does happen, and there will be much resistance I am sure. I want to teach in a school that creates a positive student experience where the entire school community truly cares about the student as a whole and not just test scores and performance. A more holistic environment for students, one that cares for their minds and bodies, and one that is not controlled by corporate interests. I would hope for the future that we move from the ‘fast food’ model of education, as Robinson talked about, and towards a model that is more student centered.
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