Blog Post #12

Changing Education Paradigms

By: Sir Ken Robinson

Author: Autumn Sprouse Ken Robinson made many good, strong points in his video. The first one that caught my attention is how kids don't see a point in going to school. Even when I was in school, my teachers always told me growing up that if you did not have a college diploma then you will not have a good job when you get out of school. This simple statement pushed students to do better in school work and made them want to succeed. But now times have changed. In todays society, people do not have to have a college diploma to succeed to support their family. Students today are classified as "smart" or "not smart" and this causes students to think down on their self. When children in kindergarten were tested on their iQ level, 98% of them tested as genius. That sounds amazing right? But what is the number in fifth grade. Mr. Robinson states that every year their numbers keep declining. One possible reason for that may be all the testing that goes on in the classroom. Mr. Robinson believes that students are taught to do questions from the book for homework with the answers in the back of the book. He then explains how the teacher says not to look, but we all know everyone does. Mr. Robinson firmly believes that all great learning happens in groups, and I have to agree with him!

How to Escape Educations Death Valley

By:Sir Ken Robinson


Author: Autumn Sprouse


Over 80% of kids drop out of school in the United States each year. That number remarkably sticks out. Why do students drop out? Maybe education is moving in the wrong direction. In Ken Robinson's video, he states what he thinks could be wrong in the school system in today's society. ADHD is very popular today for students who seem to be hyper in the classroom and also outside of the classroom. But, if students sit in the classroom for every day for eight hours, how could you not get antsy. When children are actually paying outside the classroom games such as video games, watching television, or playing on the computer (things they are actually interest in) it is hard to keep them interested in the classroom on material they are not excited about. In today's society, you will find testing very popular in the classroom and find students not making the grades they should be making. Testing has become dominant when it should be diagnostic. I know personally, and I am sure everyone has made a grade that they were not satisfied with and beat themselves up over it when you knew the material. When students keep making these grades continuously, it is easy to think why am I even interested in this when I am just going to fail the test. We are so worried about meeting standards and to get the highest grades over your grade level when that is not how it should be. Ken Robinson did a great job on explaining what is wrong in the school system. I have definitely learned so much from this video and agree with everything he says in it!

How Schools Kill Creativity

by: Sir Ken Robinson

Author: Autumn Sprouse In this video by Sir Ken Robinson he explains that creativity is not pushed in the classrooms anymore. You could tell how he stood on this topic, as he was very firm that all children are born with something that makes them creative. So every student should be showing that in the classroom. He also made a very valid point saying that who knows what education will be like in five years. This is again true. I was looking back at pictures the other day of one of my family's favorite places to vacation and we go every year, and looking at these pictures so much has changed. Around five years ago we had the first iPhone, and now we have advanced so much further from that. In today's society, schools are pushing students on how to just do things correctly instead of pushing them to be more creative about something. Another thing that caught my attention was how he said that you have to prepare to be wrong so you can be creative. That is very true. Everyone knows how scary it used to be in school to raise your hand when you thought you knew the answer, but you were just too afraid to because you did not want to be wrong in front of the class. It is our job to push our students to want to take that dare. It is also not just children who are scared to be wrong, it is a problem with adults too, and sometimes I can admit that I am scared to be adventurous and be wrong. As a society, we need to teach and also learn to take the chance!