Sir Ken Robinson Response: Time for a New School Transformation

I gave a Ken Robinson TED talk as an assignment a few weeks ago.  He talks a lot about how school doesn't need a 'reformation', it needs a 'transformation'.  I think he's right.

These were the questions:

1. Robinson talks about curiosity, particularly among young people. I think it is the most important thing in the learning process. Do you agree?
2. Ken Robinson gave a few of these talks 10-15 years ago. Nothing much has changed. Will this era of 'distance learning' be one of the things that speeds up people breaking away from traditional public school?

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Here is one of the best responses, from the same young woman in my previous post. It's amazing:

1. There’s the saying that “curiosity killed the cat” but what if that cat had nine lives? The cat would try something new to avoiding dying next time and keep trying till it accomplishes what it wants. Curiosity sparks discovery and discovery sparks ingenuity. The second principle that Ken Robinson describes as a driving force of human life is curiosity. “If you can light the spark of curiosity in a child, they will learn without any further assistance, very often. Children are natural learners”. Sugata Mitra’s “School in the Cloud” and SOLE is based on this particularly important fact. His experiments with the children in India and the Himalayas support Robinson’s argument. Children learn best when they’re free to explore and comprehend at their own pace. As Robinson suggests, “Curiosity is the engine of achievement”. If the cat from my earlier example wasn’t curious, then it wouldn’t have found new ways to survive and achieve what it wants.

Robinson’s description of great teachers is similar to Gatto’s methods in teaching his students. He articulates that great teachers don’t just reiterate information, but also “mentor, stimulate, provoke, [and] engage”. Gatto ensures that he does each of these things with his students, by involving in apprenticeship and teaching them to focus on creating new ideas and analysis. He doesn’t focus on tests and encourages his students to be their own self-critiques. Robinson has a comparable point about testing as well. He acknowledges the importance of standardized testing for diagnostic purposes but not for it to be the main attribute of education. “Our children and teachers are encouraged to follow routine algorithms rather than to excite that power imagination and curiosity”. Gatto spoke about one of his aversions in the school system is the idea of the “one right way” to educate. Both Robinson and Gatto have reinforced the importance of learning through curiosity rather than test scores.

Finland doesn’t focus on standardized testing and doesn’t have a dropout rate compared to the US. Instead, Finland highlights a variety of subjects besides Math, English, Science and Social Studies. As Robinson articulates, the US has an industrial approach towards education and will only improve with better data. “Education is not a mechanical system. It’s a human system…Every student who drops out of school has a reason for it, which is rooted in their own biography”. Using data alone to determine the success of millions of children is ineffectual. A human’s mind doesn’t operate like a machine and each one of us isn’t built to have the same skillsets. What one person may perceive a subject as irrelevant and hard, another may perceive it as important and easy, and vice versa. If each person receives specialized education to tailor their strengths and weaknesses, then they can all thrive. “The real role of leadership is climate control, creating a climate of possibility”. An environment that supports curiosity, creativity and independence, opens a world of possibilities.

2.

I think the era of distance learning has the potential to break people away from traditional public school. For most of us, as students and teachers, distance learning was a new and insightful experience. Doing all my work from home has allowed me to see the hidden good and bad aspects of traditional public schools and the education system. There are some things I would never miss about school such as: going to sleep late due to homework and waking up at 5am, taking the bus to and from school, starving myself because the cafeteria food is distasteful, and being restricted from using the restroom for ridiculous reasons. Well more accurately, there are many things. However, there are two important things I’ve missed the most, hanging out with my friends and talking with my teachers. Classes aren’t the same without everyone together. Fortunately, we’re in the age of technology and those problems are easy to solve. They’ll be many more opportunities to interact with everyone (once there’s no pandemic, of course). Distance learning has displayed the brokenness of the education system by illustrating the unpreparedness for uncontrollable disasters, lack of timely response and action, and lack of organization skills. This year was supposed to be my first graduation in my lifetime. I can’t blame the school for following social distancing regulations, but I had hoped they would at least give us (seniors) good compensations. We missed on the most exciting parts of senior year. Each year, the schools has Senior Awards but this year, they didn’t offer any. There doesn’t have to be an event hosting the awardees and their families, the awards can just be mailed to homes without a grand gathering.

Distance learning offers more opportunities to teach oneself and work at their own pace. To my surprise, I’m doing better in Math with distance learning compared to learning it in school. There’s a lot more work entailed but I get to take my time and comprehend what I’m learning better. I also have better resources to work with. Learning outside of school has proven to be more beneficial.

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