Blog Post Ten- What Can We Learn from Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson discusses the evolving education system in America, and the entire world, during a TED Bring on the Learning Revolution". He states how the education system is being reformed, which is not what needs to happen. When something is reformed, something is being fixed, but Sir Ken Robinson asks the question, "If nothing is broken, why fix it"? Rather than fix the education system, we need to simply revolutionize it.  By revolutionizing the system, we can make the system more effective by transformation. Sir Ken Robinson says that we are in a humanitarian crisis, and this crisis needs to be solved.
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Sir Ken Robinson states how "many people go their entire lives without knowing their talent" and the education system is a major cause of this. In an effort to emphasize how we, in the modern society, take many simple pleasures for granted, Robinson quotes Abraham Lincoln- "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew." He gives an example of this by explaining how older generations wear wristwatches, while people of the 21st century do not see the need to wear a wristwatch. This exemplifies how humans do what humans have always done, and humans do not like change. As a future educator, I need to be a supporter of change, becuse this is how my students will thrive.

For most students in high school, the end goal is graduating and becoming a college student. Robinson, though, explains how college after high school is not necessary. As aforementioned, Robinson believes that people generally do not understand what his or her talent actually is, and this is mainly because of the education system. We, as 21st century students, feel as though we must attend college and become a wheat others tell us to be, but Robinson explains that "human community depend on the diversity of talent, not a similar conception on ability". As a future educator, my responsibility is to to allow students to explore and discover their talents, and I will support my students in all that they do.

In today's society, students feel as though there are standards that need to be met, no matter what the circumstances are. In order to show this, he discusses how the education system is like a fast food restaurant- everything is standardized. Just like fast food is destroying the human body, Sir Robinson explains that the standardized model of education is ruining the human mind. The standardized education system does not feed students' passion. As teachers, Robinson explains, we need to "create the conditions in which [students] can flourish", instead of forcing students to learn the same material as every other student.


What can we take away from Sir Ken Robinson? In order to reform, transform, and revolutionize the
education system, we need to customize and personalize the curriculum individual students. Every student learns differently, and students all have different passions, so it is necessary that we, as educators, allow students to thrive in their passions. Sir Ken Robinson emphasizes that importance of teaching every student differently, and as an educator, I will always remember this importnat lesson.