Sir Ken Robinson's Take on Education

Robinson's Lecture
British educator Ken Robinson's 2006 TED Talk brings to light the "real" goals of education: To produce more academicians and to feed our industrialist society. He poses a very bleak outlook on the public educational system in general, but mainly focuses on the idea that schools have killed creativity and self-expression in students.

He points out that educators are pressed with the task of educating tomorrow's leaders and preparing them for what lies ahead in the future, even though "we have absolutely no idea how the future will play out." His main premise is that education in its current form has completely erased students' motivation and creativity, despite the fact that the "children have an extraordinary capacity for creativity," and that "all children have tremendous talent, but we squander it" by immersing them in a system of competition and rigidity.

The public education system, he believes, has a strict hierarchy of subjects, placing math and science at the top, then languages, then social sciences, then humanities, and finally, the creative arts such as music, art, drama, and dance, are at the bottom. Any student who shows an interest in the arts but a lack of interest in other areas is deemed an unsuccessful student. The system places the most "useful" subjects at the top, and there is a continuous "protracted process of preparing students for university entrances," whether or not the degrees they earn serve any purpose. In such a system, "there is only one right answer" and "mistakes are the worst thing in the world." Students who fail to conform to this system see themselves as unworthy and may struggle with issues of self-worth for the rest of their lives. He contends, "Our educational system has mined students' minds the way we have strip-mined the earth."

Reflection
I agree with Robinson that our schools have become overly competitive, hierarchical institutions in which relatively few students will be considered "successful," and everyone else is just average or below, despite whatever talents they may possess. This is just a reflection of what society has always valued: The acumen to make money, get ahead, beat the competition, be leader of the pack, etc. This seems to be the way of the world--those who control the scarce resources and have "all the answers" will retain all the power. I doubt that this will ever change, but we can change our response to it. Students can be taught that, even if the world operates this way, they can retain a circle of influence within their own environment, and seek their own higher purpose, beyond the pursuit of wealth, status, and power if they so choose. To do this, we must continue to inform them of their options beyond just "getting into a top-notch university." It seems that getting high SAT test scores and collecting college acceptance letters has become a competitive sport, mainly for parents. If we place more emphasis on learning actual information rather than on test scores, students would feel less discouraged and more empowered to continue learning.