This
blog is a response to a talk by Sir Ken Robinson.
Sir Ken Robinson, an expert on creativity,
expresses his feelings about the current school systems in our world. He
believes the way our children are being educated don’t properly educate them
for the real world they will enter during their collegiate and post-collegiate
years. Robinson makes a great case for why he believes in this theory, and
utilizes sarcastic remarks and comical comments to persuade his audience, which
I believe he does well.
Robinson’s idea about fostering creativity in
school systems is an idea I wholeheartedly believe in. Sir Ken states that
school systems not only have a lack of imaginative thinking, but then undermine
creativity as a whole. Though his idea may seem radical to many, it makes
sense. Is a child really going to need to memorize every bone in the body and
every war that a random country fought only for them to become artists and
paint flowers? Probably not. So what should schools do, let the kid paint
flowers? The answer is yes and the answer is no.
I believe to cultivate learning and basic
skills is important as well. The obvious subjects that children need to learn
are mathematics and arithmetic, English and grammar, some science and history.
But why teach student biology and chemistry at advanced levels in high school
if they know that those subjects are not their favorite? I think by
incorporating Robinson’s radicalism into our school systems is the best
opportunity for students. At a young age, students should be exposed to a
multitude of classes and options. If a 13 year old would rather take a
chemistry class over a music class, that’s great. Values are subjective and
people’s incentives matter! But why should “elective classes” like music,
computers, business, theater, law, art, etc. be put down? Sure, there are
plenty of doctors in our world who took plenty of science classes to get there,
but there are also business men and women, artists, singers, and actresses who
maybe could have had larger potential if they had the opportunity to learn
their skill earlier on. Shakespeare had to have taken a science class once, and
what does he care now how he did back then? Pressure on students in our school
systems is overwhelming. I do agree with Robinson though, what an annoying kid
Shakespeare would have been in an English class.
Our world needs to acknowledge multiple types
of intelligence. Robinson even says himself that “creativity is as important as
literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” It’s great for a child
to be able to read and write and follow directions, but those skills foster his
or her ability to grow as a creative person, and as a future leader. Robinson
touches on the idea of being wrong. Out of all the clichés of society, I think
this is the worst one. People grow and learn from their mistakes, and should
never feel scared to be wrong because of penalties or punishment that come
along with it. Plus, mistakes help people learn who they are, and allow people
to learn what their faults and their talents are.
Robinson explains that once a little girl was
in drawing lessons and drew a picture of God. When her teacher saw it, she said
“Nobody knows what God looks like.” The girl’s response? “They will in a
minute.” That is the kind of attitude our children should have, unafraid to
explore, learn, and be creative.
Before the 19th century,
there were no public schools. School systems came into place to meet the
growing needs of industrialism. As any reasonable person knows, things change.
Society does a great job of adapting to that change in order to benefit its
people. I believe in Ken Robinson’s idea that our school systems need to change
again to adapt to the growing world and changing students.
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