Sir Ken Robinson Ted Talk Review

 “Every country on earth at the moment is reforming public education.” 

– Sir Ken Robinson

The key point coming from Ken Robinson’s TED talk is that education should always be relevant to   the reality of its learners. It was intriguing to me that much of our modern education system was birthed in the Enlightenment Era and as a response to the Industrial Revolution. It was also interesting to note that even though we have been through other massive eras of social transformation, such as the World Wide Web and Globalization, that the system has not flexed much to accommodate all the changes that have occurred in learning.

After listening to Robinson’s exposé I have been challenged, as an educator, to tune into the present day realities of learners. To tune into what their realities are as learners in ‘the classroom’ and what their reality will be in the ‘workplace’. No longer is it a given that students will get a job after getting a college degree or degree of any kind and the dynamics of the workforce have been shifting with changes across the generations. Learners need to be given the creative space and tools to create jobs, see new ways of working and or innovate in the workplace.

 As a life long learner, I am convinced that true learning is self directed and continuous. It is stimulation that entices people to thirst for and seek out knowledge. That causes people to dialogue and collaborate around issues they are passionate about and thereby acquire skills to contribute meaningfully to society and enact change. In essence it’s divergent, experiential and practical not scripted, theory dominant and impractical. When I think of the work that I get paid to do these days, I can honestly say that much of that knowledge was not learned, by rote, in the classroom. A lot of my learning occurred through working and collaborating with others around things that fascinated me; around things I could explore and experiment with in my own personal time and at my own pace.

Parting words…

Don’t just take my word for it…I highly recommend watching this video because if nothing else it may challenge the way you have been taught  view education and the human capacity.