Sir Ken Robinson is one of my favorite thinkers and speakers. The video “Changing Educational Paradigms” is a must-see for anyone interested in rethinking the public purpose and function of schools. With this entertaining RSAnimate video, Robinson leads us into a deeper understanding of the tensions and contradictions of public education and the essential need to change the underlying structures and practices in a system of education that is outdated and broken.
I particularly appreciate Robinson contrasting the marginalization of the arts (or the aesthetic experience) with the “anesthetizing” effects of standardized testing. Particularly disturbing is his assertion that the ADHD epidemic is fictitious. Instead of deadening our children, we should be awakening their senses. Robinson calls attention to the outdated factory model of schooling and the dangers of conformity (“educating students in batches”). He references a longitudinal study on divergent thinking (or the essential capacity for creativity—which all children have). Sadly, divergent thinking is stunted as children progress through years of formal schooling (“There is one answer”). Robinson’s solutions:
- Think differently about human capacity;
- Get over the old conception between academic and vocational;
- Acknowledge that collaboration is where learning occurs;