Disagree: Sir Ken Robinson provides lots of problems with our education system. What statements do you think he gets wrong?

[Leslie Raffelson]

What particular statement do you most disagree with in his speech? Provide insight and evidence as to why you think we have it right in the way we are doing it and why you think he is wrong. 

 

Please make sure you respond to 2-3 other educators responses as well.

[Rebekah Lyons]

When I listened to and watched this video, I kinda wondered what was so "big" about what he was saying.  Most of what he said, to me, failed to have any real depth to it.  I heard him using a lot of poorly supported statements, big words, and catchy phrases left undefined and spoken with confidence....and I wasn't too impressed by the cleverness.  He is good at creating "flash," but I saw it as predominately empty "flash."  I didn't hear anything new nor did I hear any real solutions to a lot of criticism.  Though, I suppose he wasn't intending to present solutions.

 

Part of me wants to say:  schools can reform all they want, but it will never "fix" anything until we realize the problems lay with societies attitudes and values as a whole. We are certainly a force that is partially responsible for and can help change this, but the problems and solutions go much deeper than reforming an education system.

[maria roberts]

I agree whole-heartedly with Rebekah!

[Tammy Fehringer]

The statement that I disagreed with is that "cheating" at a child's age should be compared with collaboration at an adult's age.  I think in many instances while growing up and learning new things at first we need to prove our knowledge and competencies.  I always tell kids, particulary in accounting class, that in the real world you get to use cheat sheets at your cubicle and that your boss actually encourages the behavior so that your work is correct.

[Penny Thomson]

Sir Robinson stated, "Creativity is original ideas that have value."   I am wondering who gets to decide what ideas have value and what ideas don't?

I am guilty of squelching creativity by younger kids because it is so unrealistic.  I wish now I could raise my two kids again and foster their imagination!   To my credit, I did encourage my daughter to color outside of the lines...   : )

 

Also, I dislike it when someone critices anything but does not offer substantial and meaningful ways to do something correctly or better.  We all can criticize, but then what?  The video left me feeling frustrated. 

[Evelyn Gardiner]

Collaboration?  What collaboration?  I hear so much about collaboration in the real world; and maybe it's happening in the corporate world, (is that why everyone is in a cubicle?) but I don't see it happening in education, especially in our small building.  We all sit in our own rooms doing our own thing, without much concern for what is going on in other classrooms.  We don't meet often enough to solve problems with the nuts and bolts of the system let alone the educational part of it.  We also sit in our own rooms responding to these questions when we could have met face-to-face and done the same thing in an hour or hour and a half...and solved just as many problems with education as we are solving in this format. 

Sorry to go off on such a negative direction, but I was frustrated Friday morning.  We could have met together and had this same conversation in the time it took to work out the technical problem of not being allowed to comment.  I personally couldn't concentrate on doing the work I needed to do in my classroom and still read and respond to other's comments at the same time. (I know you're going to say I'm "old school," but I consider myself as much of a multi-tasker as anyone, just not when I've got essays to grade to meet eligibilty.) Whew!  Got that off my chest! 

Collaboration?  Let's DO collaborate; let's get together as a staff, pick one or two changes we can truly make to better our educational practices, make a plan, implement it, and evaluate it.

Co

[Leslie Raffelson]

Evelyn,

Thanks for your input. I am sorry that you were frustrated with this format and were not alone I am sure. I did not know the pending membership problem and that that would be an issue. Mr. Dutton knew that he was going to be gone and wanted the staff to view this video and discuss it. We both thought that some type of online format would allow Friday to be a informal session and workday. Maybe that was not communicated well enough and could have been planned a bit better. The intent was not to come out of this with tons of problems solved, but to maybe stimulate some out of the box discussion on possibilities. At least that was the way that I looked at this. Having that type of discussion in one room with all of us would maybe not allow enough time for people to process and respond or gather their thoughts on everything? It could have been valuable as well. 

I was hoping that from this online discussion where everyone had input, maybe the administration and teachers could maybe start the process of talking about what items truly need to be addressed and then start the process you talked about with face to face meetings. I am not sure what would be the most valuable.