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RSA Animated talk on Education by Sir Ken Robinson



Well, I watched it, the video that is- and I agree to a point. What I'd have to stress and preface this with is I had a private, religious education, in a small school- with a very close knit group of people. Sounds like a cult right? It wasn't but I think should preface my thoughts on this with this disclaimer, my education was probably slightly different from the standard UK education. 
For a large part I do agree with Sir Robinson, I think that education can feel like it's penalising 'non-conformers', I was very lucky that I had teachers in school who did often reward us asking 'why?'
'What?' they'd often stop what they where doing and go find an awnser....(just don't ask about evolution yeah?).

But at the same time we still had the curriculum, the teachers bible- the thing that says 'hey you're smart you know what you're doing!' and to be honest, I don't think, at least when I was at school it did half of enough.

I was left with all these academic subjects at the end of high-school/secondary school not knowing what I wanted to do with my life! I went to sixth-form, this was more conventional but funny enough- being in a close knit group all my life left me with limited social skills for a long time (a work in progress). In sixth form I took English lit, Media and Theatre (I really had no hope of getting a good job with that right?!) but I wasn't engaged- I was being told what to do -what to think, how to think. Again I left sixth-form with no idea what to do next. (I know it sounds like I wish I'd just been told the answers, I don't) My view on my education is mixed overall. I wish I'd been allowed to explore more, why did I have to pick and choose subjects, realize that 6 months - a year in they're all a bad fit- but not able to choose any other option. That really led me to stop engaging. I didn't care and there wasn't too much I could do about it. As Sir Robinson says- it feels very batch by batch, it feels very static. Why not hold classes and let those interested come, those who aren't can go seek out what they want. Why not reward curiosity and questioning rather than see it as a tangent? (Well it'd be very expensive. Lets face it.)

Education needs a shake up, yes, the world changes daily in a heartbeat and we're still, again as Sir Robinson says, using a system that was out-dated a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago, ten to fifteen years ago the Internet was still in its infancy. You can seek information out on the Internet- the downside is you have to wade through the half-baked tutors, or people who just plain don't know what they're talking about. You have to be careful (more so these days) about the accuracy of the information you find- the sources.  But it is there, if you look you can find information about anything- all it needs is a little motivation and perseverance. 

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