This is a great video courtesy of Sir Ken Robinson via Ted Talks. In this video he explores the various ways that education today appears to be restricting creative thinking by students. There are a number of quotes from the video that really sprung at me.

Education is meant to talk us into a future that we cannot grasp.

Sir Ken Robinson

If you are not prepared to be wrong you will never come up with anything original.

Sir Ken Robinson

As a teacher I see this with many of my students, especially the lower performing students-they are terrified about being wrong. They are so terrified, that some of them become withdrawn from our classroom community. However, when they grow more comfortable and realize that the sky will not fall if they are wrong, they will usually begin to open up. Therefore, as teachers, parents and members of the community it is our responsibility to let children feel comfortable about “being wrong”.

 

So what do you think? Do you think the current form of education is wrong? Will all students to able to meet and exceed the standards all the time? Are we only teaching to students’ heads, and slightly to one side, as Sir Ken Robinson postulates?

 

 

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