Hello everyone,
I would like to present you a TED talk:
Creativity expert Ken Robinson challenges the way we are educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. Why don't we get the best out of people? Ken Robinson argues that it's because we have been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies - far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity - are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences.
Questions are:
1. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree?
2. How does this relate to your own experience at school or university?
3. Are there any other changes to education you would make if you could?
Mr Robinson makes a very strong argument that creativity should be more prevalent in schools. His use of humour and personal experiences make his speech fun to listen to and also strengthen his argument. However I do not agree with all his ideas. Robinson repeatedly states that schools are killing creativity as they only focus on the core classes, being math, science, language and social studies, and in a manner of speaking he would be correct, as they focus less on creative and artistic classes. In my opinion this is incorrect and misleading. We are living in the twenty first century and nobody can change it. Our world has become more and more technically advanced and therefore our life is more sophisticated than before. We must educate our children to live in the modern world and develop this world in the future. We cannot stop world develop because we should find a new remedy to nowadays illnesses as cancer, global warming, ecological fuel etc. If we educate our children more in humanistic and artistic way our world will descend into a black hole. I reckon all art lesson as painting, dancing, playing musical instruments should be only for children who like this kind of activities and should not be estimated they ought to exist without school marks.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your insights however I think that you might have missed Robinson’s reasoning. Nobody said that the development of selected children’s skills won’t develop world in the future. Moreover it can foster an overall development of the child and thus of the human.
DeleteThis is very interesting speech. Children have a very creative approach, they do not know the limits yet. Restriction destroys our creativity, but it protects us from threats. Very often people discover areas that are considered to be closed if they do not know about them. The ideal model of education should be based on knowledge and creativity. This is difficult to achieve. (I do not know if it is possible) I agree with the thesis that our interests should mark our career path. This example with a girl and ADHD is very meaningful. Education is like a tourist trail - If you follow the directions then you will reach the destination but you will not discover anything fascinating. If you deviate a little from it you can discover fascinating things, otherwise you can have a problem with reaching the destination. Education - in form of one teacher and thirty students in the classroom can lead to lack of creativity. At the same time the teacher creates a lot of documentation to fill the archives of the school. The teacher is not creative because the system does not allow him. There is no chance of success. If there is one Teacher and there are several students in the classroom - that's the best situation. The Individual program should be tailored to the student's ability and interests. At the beginning, the teacher helps to discover areas of interest, later teacher mentors, specialist ...
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion you have very good insights. I agree with you in general.
DeleteOn the other hand small group classes can also make it impossible to discover the unique abilities of children. I think it depends on the teacher and his sense of recognizable ability. The level of education depends primarily on the teacher.
I partially agree with Mr. Ken Robinson and with ZC. It is true that in many instances school, curriculum not adjusted to children's needs and capabilities, as well as lousy teachers do kill what is the best in us. They kill child's curiosity of the world, passion for particular scientific discipline or subject. Nevertheless, development of technology and requirements of the modern world make us learn all our lives, not only creative things, but most of all sciences.Without profound knowledge of math, logic, physics, biology, chemistry we won't be able to meet demands of future and progress.
ReplyDeleteYes you are right. But do you really think that profound knowledge is necessary? I personally believe that we need only basic knowledge in various fields of science. If somebody is interested in an unknown subject, he will extend his knowledge with pleasure.
DeleteHi, I am not sure can we answer at this question based on one story. Mr. Robinson arguments look fine, but we should be a little bit pragmatic before we write review. I can agree with Wieslaw thesis that children do not know the limitations of possibilities. Sometimes scale of their creativity can surprise us.
ReplyDeleteAn answer for the question about my school is not easy. My answer is: it is not depends from the school but from the teacher... you can meet even at "the worst school" magnificent teacher, which is doing its work as good as it can. This teacher can often stimulate your creativity.
Only thing that crosses my mind is method of examination. Mature exams and so on are based on patterns that students have to discover. In that case creativity is often a problem, which can have negative influence on achieved results.
I fully agree with your conviction about the teacher’s impact on education and creativity of children. Besides, I would also do the ordering with all final exams, also in college. Why not take advantage of all the exam grades that took place during the entire education stage?
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ReplyDelete1. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree?
Yes I agree that “every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of subjects. Every one. Doesn't matter where you go. You'd think it would be otherwise, but it isn't. At the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom are the arts. Everywhere on Earth. And in pretty much every system too, there's a hierarchy within the arts.”
This hierarchy is absolutely stupid if someone like to do something artistic at school teachers will make fun of it and tell you that you will have money for a living.
2. How does this relate to your own experience at school or university?
I am absolutely sure that schools kills creativity and I would even say that school kills potential, time, psychology and many many more. For me institution like school (in terms how it looks now) should not exist at all. Being forced to learn things that are absolutely irrelevant and will never be used in real life is totally sad. We waste our best potential, since we learn easily when we are young and the older we get the harder it is to learn new things. Instead of focusing on that is interesting for us, of having choice what we would like to focus on, we have to learn by heart bullshit. The best way to learn is practise, trying new things, not learning theory. Unfortunately no matter is it school or university it looks the same. Theory, theory, theory. They teach you how to be average and hot to not succeed.
3. Are there any other changes to education you would make if you could?
I would let parents decide what subjects the kid should learn. If they see that kid is interested in languages, what is the point of learning some theory of chemistry that is completely useless. I would make individual programs to everyone, because you can’t put everyone in one class and tell them to do the same things, while one child is learning quicker or slower, they need more individual classes.
Thank you for your comment. In my opinion you mentioned two very important issues: the role of parents decision in further education of children and an individual curriculum. In my point of view these are undervalued aspects of the good development of children’s creativity.
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ReplyDeleteQuestions are:
ReplyDelete1. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree?
I agree that school kills creativity. People are born with natural couriosity and willingness to learn so forcing small kids to learn things they do not want to is not a good idea. They have to obey rules and fill tests without understanding how this may be used. Moreover, education in school is like one-size-fits-all, but reality is that we have diffirent sets of skills and needs.
2. How does this relate to your own experience at school or university?
I think that time spend at school could be managed in a better way. On the one hand I've learned many interesting things at school, extended my knowledge, met many inspiring mates and teachers. On the other hand I remember spending hours on learning how to pass a standard test instead of doing something usefull and creative.
3. Are there any other changes to education you would make if you could?
I would give more freedom of choice what to learn. Children achive better results if they learn what they like. I beleve that this is a way to develop satisfying careers in a future life.
I agree with you. However I think that some basic subjects should be also in the curriculum. Of course they shouldn’t be the leading items in education – just a kind of basic knowledge.
Delete1. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree?
ReplyDeleteI think that he is correct with his arguments. Especially with the one related how school and system treats students.
2. How does this relate to your own experience at school or university?
I have this privilege that I can say how I see it from both perspective. As a student (school and university) I can say that we always have one goal…to make a good score on some test. As far as I remember my history in school my main task was to solve more and more exercises from book. I had only make the steps that I was learned. On university everything looked more or less the same.
As a teacher in our university I can observe that students have a lot of problems with creative thinking. Often they have a problem with think about what system they can design. Thinking about some smart solutions for most of them is too hard. I think that this is often related with the fact that nobody ever asked them to do something that need some level of creativity
3. Are there any other changes to education you would make if you could?
In our country…YES. It will be only worse 😊
You mentioned a very interesting problem: we aren’t taught how to think creatively. We are taught to be the impersonators, not the creators. In my point of view it kills our innate creativity.
Delete1. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree?
ReplyDeleteHis arguments are valid. Especially, if we take a look at our schools. If you are extraordinary by any meaning, your life won't be easy.
2. How does this relate to your own experience at school or university?
Fit in a group or be alone. How to cope with that? Create a new group ;) People are always looking for a leader.
3. Are there any other changes to education you would make if you could?
Let kids choose what they want after primary school. They have enough knowledge to pick subjects interesting for them at this level. Let them explore them deeply. However, our teachers are not prepared for this. Our system is not prepared, and it's getting worse.
It seems to me that your suggestion about choosing main subjects by children after primary school is really proper. But I think that parents should also make an important contribution to the choice of their children. Nobody knows kids as their parents – of course if it is an objective approach.
DeleteThere are depressing statistics and people have used them to argue that there is something fundamentally wrong with our educational system. Sir Ken Robinson has eloquently argued that instead of promoting our children’s curiosity and sense of adventure, schools tend to encourage conformity and kill creativity. He has passionately demanded a complete restructuring of the educational systems of the Western world. Without disputing the need to rethink our educational systems, I wonder whether there is another way to look at these numbers. As most of us would agree, there are positive things coming out of our current educational system (along with the negatives). We should be careful not to destroy the positives in an attempt to remove the negatives. There is no sense in throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, schools teach us to conform. And yes, this harms our creativity. But conformity has its benefits as well. Rather than risk losing all this in an attempt to reclaim our creativity potential, how about if we keep the educational system as is and search for alternative ways to improve our creativity?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on maintaining the positive aspects of current education, although this does not change the problem of the creativity destruction by the education system. It is known that not only does school kill creativity, but in other spheres of our lives we should take care of the development of children's creativity.
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ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Ken Robinson’s arguments. My son is in 3rd class of primary school and I fast discovered (in 1st class) that: 1. contemporary educational system less prepares children to professional life, and 2. In adult life we are expected to be creative, while at school we are required to move between limits and we are taught to act schematic – otherwise this is difficult (or impossible) to judge us and to assign the grade.
Ad. 2.
My experience in this respect comes from secondary school. I had a physic professor, for whom his work was a life mission. He was also a passionate about philosophy, and wanted to teach us more than the educational system required – i.e. discipline, hardworking, regularity, consistency in action. But the most important thing he expected from us, was logical thinking. As a result, he was exceptionally very strict teacher, famous for his requirements, forcing non-logical-thinking students to change the class or even school. As an effect, he met the resistance of the parents, who wanted to protect their kids. I wonder, protect from what?? Anyway, in this class, where he met such reaction, he had to change his way of teaching. But I remember how angry he was, he told us: „They want school without stress… well, ok. But if they think that their life is possible without stress, they are totally wrong.”
Now I know he was the most inspiring teacher I met and one of the extraordinary man I met. I still remember his rules of solving the tasks, and I still keep in mind his philosophical attitude to life, which helped me in many situations.
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I have a lot of reflections about educational system. I would introduce more discipline to schools. I think teachers are not apprioprately respected.
It should be more mathematics at school, more traditional classic literature and more physical exercises. I would like there would be also more flexability – for example more practical classes, individual classes for interested and especially clever students. I think schools should strongly and consequently support individuals.
Great, based on experience comment – thanks a lot. I have the same opinion on logical thinking. In my opinion it is a basis of creativity. Any good idea has to be based on hard reality, otherwise it's hard to realize it. Moreover, as I remember, not all students have such subject as logic.
Delete1. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ken Robinson. In may opinion there are two sources of problems in modern education: the system and the teachers. The system treats all students in the same way, but people are very different. An example with a dancer nicely showed where the problem is. One students are thinkers and introverst, while the others are not able to spend 45 minutes sitting behind the desk. There should be different approaches applied to teach different children.
The teaches are a second subject that needs to be considered. I teached for few years as a private tutor. My students was from age 8 to 18. I noticed one common problem in every level of education in Poland, teachers don't care about students. I have an impression that some part of teachers have their job by some kind of "accident", and not because they want to do it.
2. How does this relate to your own experience at school or university?
The experience from school may be very different. It depends who the student is. I agree with the TED speaker, that our education system promotes science and technique, but not necessarily humanities and art. Some time ago I had a discussion with my friends about our education experience, and what was easily noticed, the engineers had good memories from school time and usually said, that there were some bad things at school, but generally it was ok. But my friends who are now writers and artists described their school time as a nightmare.
3. Are there any other changes to education you would make if you could?
In my opinion, the most important is the individual approach to the student.
I think you mentioned the most problematic issues that have an essential influence on creativity: education system, teachers and individual approach to the student. All of the above comments come down to these factors. To conclude, there is a need to look at these issues and make the right conclusions.
Delete1. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree?\
ReplyDeleteI think I agree that school kills creativity. Children are born with an open mind and do their best to learn as much as they can. Making them learn things they are not interested in may reduce their curiosity. They learn patterns how to pass exams and they don't understand what they learn. Every child has different needs and skills so it may kill creativity of the majority.
2. How does this relate to your own experience at school or university?
I remember that in the secondary school I was bored because the school syllabus was dedicated mostly for the weaker students. I lost my willingness to learn because of the slow pace. There were no challenges.
3. Are there any other changes to education you would make if you could?
I had many reflections on the whole situation. Some kind of an individual approach to every student and supporting individuals may be a good idea.
That’s right. An individual approach and adapting the curriculum to children can really improve the development of creativity.
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ReplyDeleteI think it is rather hard to say every thins os whit or black.
ReplyDeleteSo in some aspects I do agree in some I do not.
In may opinion education should focus on embracing creativity, knowledge sharing, team work and knowledge gathering or usage.
Thank you for your comment. Do you see any other changes to education you would make if you could?
DeleteI agree with thesis that school kills creativity. On the other hand I’m not sure if creativity can be learned or can we just develop what we already have. Everybody has at least a bit of creativity. Of course it can be lost during school time . I think that upgrading our level of creativity is rather mater of good attitude to this challenge than making more art classes. Probably playing a lot of chess would learn someone to think more logical, but the question is if he will use this attitude in his everyday life.
ReplyDeleteIn my school reality there wasn’t a lot of creative classes. There was possibility to choose which classes are more interesting for me to get extra hours. I would reduce a range of obligatory classes. Going forward maybe school shouldn’t be obligatory after 4-5 years of education.