Sir Ken Robinson – Do Schools Kill Creativity?
February 22, 2009
I was asked to watch this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson as part of my Master’s program last fall. I keep coming back to it. I think I keep coming back to it because it makes me question what I do in my classroom. It keeps forcing me to think about what the real purpose of what I do every day is. Is my job to prepare kids? Or is my job to work with kids, to help them grow. I think there is a subtle difference in the approach that can make a world of difference.
I often hear from teachers, and I agree with them, that teaching just isn’t fun anymore. It’s no longer about kids, or about learning, or about people, but about meeting goals, making AYP, covering content, passing tests.
I also wonder if this is part of the discipline problems most schools are having today. Are the students rebelling, in the only way they know how, to what they know in their hearts is wrong? Are they calling out in the only way they know how asking for change?
So what is the answer? I honestly don’t know. I do think it starts with us as teachers. I think we as teacher’s need to take a huge collective pause and reflect back on the road we have taken and how we got here. Are we really in the place we need to be? If not I think we as teacher’s need to take action. Anne Bean touched on something similar to this in her blog post “Friday Frazzle” Schools are filled with some of the most educated people. So why do we sit back and wait for administrators and politicians to make changes. We are the ones with the expertise on learning. We have the years of experience in classrooms working daily side by side with kids.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
One Response to “Sir Ken Robinson – Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
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February 28th, 2009 at 7:16 am
I don’t know what the answer is either, but I believe discipline problems occur when the students are not actively involved in their own learning, when they don’t care, or when they feel cornered to do something that makes no sense to them. About three years ago, I took a CRISS training course which puts the learning back on the students. Growing up in the traditional way of learning, but trying to move to more collaborative learning, I struggle. With time management, organization, and ideas. All students do not learn at the same pace. I have had in the past 4 different groups working on four different topics in math all in 38 minutes. Its a lesson plan & organizational nightmare, but discipline wasn’t a major problem as the students were actively involved and interested in learning. I haven’t done this since the new textbook series and the new gradebook program. The textbook is great, but requires more group teaching to get the concepts down. The gradebook limits my ability to record and creates more problems when I can only list one assignment for the entire class. I think we hold back several students, stiffling their ability to learn and then push some students beyond what they are mentally ready for. Either way it doesn’t help them.