Sir Ken Robinson

After viewing these talks about Sir Ken Robinson's view on education, I would have to agree with many of the points that he said. Kids that are naturally creative and do not fit the stereotype of the student who sits in his or her desk all day and takes notes to absorb information, needs to be medicate. Creativity can lead to the most elaborate thoughts and the most dynamic learning possible, yet many professionals are limiting these gains by assuming students have attention disorders. I agree with him in the fact that we need to realize the school systems were developed for a different age, and for a different learner. Students these days are not focused on sitting in the classroom just for the fact that they are being told it will get them a job. The economy has shifted in a way that this is just not the reality, and our students know this. We need to focus our lessons and the education that we put forth in a way that allows the students to succeed in what they want to succeed in, not just what we are telling them they need to do. This comes a lot from the standardized testing that has been pushed forward throughout the past few decades, from people that know absolutely NOTHING about what the best learning practices are, they only care about what the statistics show.

Within my teachable major of Social Studies, I can see various ways to incorporate all of these ideas. Students do not learn by just sitting and taking notes over and over again. To understand what is being presented, they need to dive in to the curriculum and experience it first hand. We can utilize the technology that we have through smart boards to have students see first hand the documents we are discussing, have them recreate voyages that have shaped our earth, and utilize web quests and Web 2.0 technology to turn the social studies into an alive discipline. Students need to experience the information in an artistic way, or a mobile way, and not just listen to our voices blurt out terms and standards that we are being required to teach. If they are not interested, they won't learn, and that will defeat the entire goal of public education.