This video went for 20mins, but was worth every second. Although this kind of thing really interests me. I found Ken Robinson very inspirational, especially since I am studying psychology; it was these kinds of things which made me want to be a psychologist. I agree with everything Ken was saying about the education system today, "If you're not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original." And I think that's where the flaw is, as Ken said adults/teachers are making mistakes the worst thing you can possibly do. "As a result we are educating people out of their creative capacity," it's kind of like when a child hands in an assignment and we tell them that they did it wrong, aren't we putting up a wall to that child's creativeness? So they stick to everything they are told to do, set guidelines which they must adhere to or FAIL! Nice. And then they are afraid to be wrong again, so they stick to what everyone else tells them to do, therefore stopping their creativity because instead of supporting it, we're practically crushing it. Even though there could be arguments to this, such as, “But it’s teaching children how to follow direction, because in a real job there will be guidelines your company will be asking for.” This is true and I can see the point, but wouldn’t they be able to learn that once they are working for the company? Shouldn’t companies be training their staff in this way anyway? Because even with that point being made I still think that having their own original idea’s they could bring something more to a company. And I know through teaching we can improve certain skills, which I think is important. I just think the teaching process needs to be changed. After watching the video, it almost made me feel sad because there are all these children that could grow so much with the correct approach and they could all grow and love what they are doing. Because they decided on it themselves and that’s what they want. But instead we tell them what they should be, "No don't do music you won't get anywhere with that, do maths/physics/biology that’s where the real jobs are. Well excuse me, but not all of us want to be rocket scientists. I think not only does our view on education need to be changed also how we perceive intelligence. Why do people say a mathematician is smarter than a dancer? How are you even meant to measure intelligence? Why do people put intelligence into a category? Intelligence isn't designated to one occupation, why are schools and universities setting up their education systems to make professors? I think the main thing that needs to be changed is people's approach to education and intelligence. The way we teach needs to change too I think, because failing students I don’t think is having any kind of positive effect. Because when you think about it, a child being told you are doing something wrong, you really are killing the creativity. You’re not letting this child create their own work, their originality. I still think guidance is needed, but guidance not guidelines. And maybe some guidelines to a project need to be made, because we need some way to mark this. But not making it out as thought they are doing it completely wrong. There are ways to word things and still put across what needs to be done without stopping their creative input. I think there needs to be room to support and encourage creativity. Our own original ideas are what shape us as humans, do they not? We’re all unique and we all want different things out of our lives. We need people to stop trying to shape our future, we need to be given all the tools to our futures. We don’t need people telling us what subjects to do, because those are the “smart” ones. We don’t need people telling us we aren’t going to get a job if we don’t like maths. There shouldn’t be “compulsory subjects,” because it should be OUR choice.
I know there are probably tonnes of flaws in my argument and if I think about this more, there are things I would change and think about further. But alas I shall post this. There would be things needed to be taken into consideration, before real changes could be made. But if there is one thing I really want for people, is not to be told what to do with their lives. I hate the fact that the education system/parents and just adults in general put these ideas into our heads about what we should be doing. These are our lives, let us decide. Show us everything there is about this world and give us the opportunity to choose. Let us be aware of all that is available to us, the different career options. But show us from a support view. When children are growing and learning support them and what they are choosing, encourage their creativeness.
You deserve to be doing what you want, what makes you happy.
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