My man runs a primary school and believes passionately about children and their futures.. he is a bit of a radical when it comes to his feelings about the way we currently teach children in our education system and believes in emotional intelligence..
I am not going to pretend that I know much about the subject ... but I DO know that children are sacred and should be nurtured in all capacities...the right education is the foundation to their happiness and success in life whichever path they choose.
Two days ago.. I was shown a video of Sir Ken Robinson.. an educational guru ... this 20 minute video will change the way you think about your child's education... it is profound and thought provoking in many ways...
As I have still completely failed to link properly yet... I have managed somehow to link to the video clip by clicking on the title of my post.. For your children's sake.. this will lead you to Sir Ken Robinson's inspirational talk...
I found it most interesting and very moving .. this man is a visionary... PLEASE watch..!
Even if you think this is not relevant to you or your children .. it will resonate .. with you in some way.. I promise!
I would love to hear your thoughts about Sir Ken Robinson's philosophy..
Thursday, 7 February 2008
For your children's sake..
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12 comments:
Thank you! I thought the clip wonderful and found Ken Robinson both charming, funny and inspirational.His ideas on creativity and how we educate our children should not be much of a shock to us, for I think alot of us know already, don't we? It's just knowing how to stop the rot, and we can do this as best we can in our home environment and just hope that we can change things sooner rather than later in the educational environment that plays such a big part in our children's lives.I will send this clip on to people I know, maybe this will help in some tiny way.....
Best Wishes and Love from Annie x
What a way to start my day! I saw your post last night and decided to wait and see the video this morning. Speaking of the educational environment here in the Netherlands; people over here could learn an awfull lot of Ken Robinson. Children are being tested earlier and earlier and the most appreciated talents are those what we call 'cognitive', does that word ring any bells? It means learning skills (to read and to calculate), the tests are developed to discover whether a child possesses those skills. But there are no tests to reveil ones entrepreneural skills or skills to get along with people, to understand them and so on. A child here is pushed (not stimulated but pushed) to get into the highest educational level the gymnasium. In primary school I was told that if you cared about your child the level underneath gymnasium was the least your child should accomplish. My reply was that my daughter simply could't make that. And my profound thought was that she would be totally unhappy. Now we have chosen a 'lower' (this diversion into high and low levels is soo stupid to begin with) level for her at a school which teaches theatre skills as well. Learning drama, how to dance and sing makes the whole education bearable to my daughter.
In the mean time it is almost impossible to get a good plummer, to have your house painted in a proper way and in time and so on. Here in the Netherlands Poles are taking over those jobs now. People think that is easy and cheap.
The past 20 years our secondary school level has been growing from small schools into learning fabrics. It should all be made cheaper. Now the fabrics aren't doing what they are supposed to do, so we are knitting and crocheting some horrible adjustments. Why not think about what we really want in stead of accepting what is already here and thinking of solutions in terms of money saving?
It's the same with our problem with traffic. Too many cars, too much pollution, but no one is really making an effort to change that. We are dealing with wat we have got, so we think: more ways, better ways, more parking spots etc. People just don't take any responsibility I guess as a lack of creativity, you have got what you have got. What on earth could there be in stead of....(just fill in any situation,). Mmm I'm getting a bit carried away, but this clip is so inspiring to me! I definitely am going to share this. In my view an ocean starts with one little wave. So thanks Ken and thank you for starting!
Btw I was thrilled by your comment in my blog, do I mind to be linked??? I was sooo flattered and I have linked you too! Have a nice weekend!
Hi there! I was catching up on blogs at 3am (don't ask!) and I so loved Ken's talk I wanted to wake the house up and say come and watch this, it's brilliant! I can so relate to being told not to do art, drama and music as I would not get a job. My father who was a graphic designer also told my art teacher I wasn't good enough and I wasn't allowed to continue as it would lead to nowhere. There isn't enough time for me to tell you my life but after school I did get accepted into one theatre but as I had no financial support I had to give up and get a 'proper job'. After years of mind-numbing jobs, 2 brain tumours and various illnesses I found myself disabled at home. I tried painting again, but having married a graphic designer (will I never learn!) I always compared my work up against his and lost heart. Then I discovered sewing and after doing quilting I moved onto embroidery. Here I sat in a room of women of all ages who were burning, tearing and bonding material and much more. Nothing you did was wrong and everyone encouraged you. In less than a year I had won a competition for Coats thread and a prize from Stitch magazine. I still find it hard however to experiment and free my mind from the constraints that have been put there over the years. I am terrified of getting things wrong, of failure - of being humiliated and I realized watching Sir Ken that I have passed this onto my 11 year son. We all get sucked into the educational bandwagon and my husband and I have been guilty of making him re-do things or even worse doing them for him. I'm terrified of him being laughed at by the other children or told off by the teachers. I realized a while ago that he has come to rely on us to do things and think for him and that whatever he does he must not fail. I feel terrible about this but it is so hard to break free from the pack. We live in Kent on the outskirts of London and hate it, we feel like aliens, we don't fit in and my husband can stop conversations with mention that he is an artist and graphic designer! I am not into fashion and celebrities and stand out like a sore thumb at the school gates. We would love to move to Cornwall or someone near the sea but we are bound by lack of money and my health to live here. (I have specialized medicine and have to apply to NICE for funding and some areas won't give it). If only we could have a miracle and escape to an island in Scotland where we could set up our own schools and raise our children surrounded by love and creativity in a safe environment. We close the door at night and stick our heads in the sand, pretending that the crazy things in the world aren't happening. I will pass on your link to everyone I know but in my heart I wonder if we can really change things. I looked Sir Ken up and there are more interviews here:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Robinson_%28British_author%29 Sorry to have gone on so much - love the blog, keep going! Debbs
Can't watch this right now as I'm naughtily reading blogs while at work! But I will definitely have a look later at home. I'd love to be able to give you a lesson on how to do links but as I'm a typepad user I'm not sure that it's the same way on blogger.
Thanks for this Michele, I watched the video from start to finish and was enthralled. At last somebody was expressing, very eloquently and entertainingly, what I felt has been lacking for so long in our children's education. I awoke this morning to news on Radio 4 that finally, the penny was beginning to drop, that we are testing our schoolchildren far too much in this country. I never want to see my children's love for learning be replaced by fear of failing, which is sadly seeming to be the case.
Kimx
Michele,
Thank you so much for sharing this... what a brilliant speech.... both inspirational, funny and moving.
I struggle with the way our children and teachers are constantly being tested.. i struggle with conformity too. i feel we need to nurture individual's spirits and praise and encourage all sorts of activities and allow children to find their passions, what they love doing and what they are good at. Ten years ago i worked with performing arts degree students and their energy and creativity was inspirational. Drama, performance and arts can send out positive messages, challenge our views and inform us about the world in a thought provoking intelligent way. I agree with Ken that many of us that were arty as opposed to 'brainy' at school were made to feel inferior as the focus was on academic achievement. I also fell that our children are the future and we are responsible for the world that we are passing on to them. Lots of food for thought here...
Thanks again.. and have a lovely wekend.
ginny
x
ps. on blogger for links... if you open the page you want to link to in a new tab or window. ..highlight it... hit control(ctrl)and then the C key (keeping hold of the ctrl key) that will copy it (it will hold in memory until you paste). Then on blogger Write the word or words you want to link to(when you are doing your new post) then highlight. There is an icon to the right of the Text colour... if you float over it it will say Link. Click on the Link icon and a text window will appear. click inside (clear any text that is inside the box)... then press the control (ctrl) key and holding that down then press the V key. This will paste the link into the box. It will then ask you to save it. Hope this helps. good luck.
x
I am so glad that I came across your blog and the link for Ken's talk.I'm a teacher and I was in the middle of writing,on my blog, about a forthcoming art/craft morning that I am doing with the children at half term.This fits in so well with what I believe.
Everyone in education should be made to listen to this!!I laughed so much,then I showed it to my hubby and I laughed so much again as he watched it.Thank you..will add your blog to my links ;-)Sal
I am just checking in on you since you haven't posted in the last few days. I do hope all is well and that you aren't hiding somewhere with the infamous MR. CAGE !!
hugs and smiles,
bj
If only there were more people like Ken Robinson in our education system today. In fact, more people like him fullstop!
An unexpectedly enjoyable 20 minutes - someone talking sense for a change, with a little humour thrown in to keep our attention. A very clever speaker with an astute message.
Thanks for the excellent post. I was sceptical when I first read it but thought I would hop over and take a look at the talk given by Ken Robinsons. I am so glad I did. It was extremely interesting as well as very funny.
I work in education and wholeheartedly agree with what he had to say. I will be passing this on to everyone I know. Thanks again.
We made our decision re education 15 years ago when our eldest was 4 and in his first school. I cannot beign to describe how this school changed him from a happy, intelligent child to a miserable, lazy one. And yet it was or seemed to be a wonderful, and v. expensive, school.
Anyway to cut a long story short we pulled him out and took the child led home education route. V. scary, but so worthwhile, none of our other children have evr set foot in school.
Anyone interested can find more info on home eduction in the UK by checking out the Eductaion Otherwise website.
WOW! This certainly is something... my mother sent me a link to this very same clip in an email! =)
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