what we need is a revolution in education

This is another fabulous TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson, an advocate for creativity, recognition of multiple intelligences, and education reform.  (Thanks, Mana, for turning me on to this one.)  This certainly touches on one of many reasons I live the way I do, and do my best to inspire others, in one way or another, to follow their passion.  Some of you are lucky enough to teach, or have your children enrolled in, schools that are at least attempting to participate in the revolution.  It is great that there are those gems out there who are able to step outside the status quo and truly inspire unique individuals to discover and love who they are, and encourage them to find their path, to follow their hearts' desire.  If, however, you are feeling skeptical about how the system is functioning, about the education your children are receiving, make some waves.  Share your thoughts and concerns, with their teachers, administrators, and county officials.  Offer some ideas, research, point to some alternative sources (such as this video), ask questions.  Or, if your lifestyle permits, opt out, forge your own path, do things your own way, jump into freedom, discover your tribe in your area and build a collective; find a way for you and your child(ren) to pursue your passions together. 

We all have a path, and sometimes we start down the road without even knowing where we're going.  Many happy discoveries and adventures can be found along the way.  Follow your instincts.  Below are some highlights from this talk.... I hope you watch and enjoy.

"Education, in a way, dislocates many people from their natural talents.... Reform is of no use anymore, because that's simply improving a broken model.... What we need...is not evolution, but a revolution in education.....This has to be transformed into something else.... Many of our ideas have been formed, not to meet the circumstances of this century, but to cope with the circumstances of previous centuries.  But our minds are still hypnotized by them, and we have to disenthrall ourselves, of some of them.  Now, doing this is easier said than done.  It's very hard to know, by the way, what you take for granted.  And the reason is, that you take it for granted.... Life is not linear, it's organic.  We create our lives, symbiotically, as we explore our talents, in relation to the circumstances they helped to create for us.  But you know, we have become obsessed with this linear narrative.  And, probably the pinnacle for education is getting you to college.... Human communities depend upon our diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability.  At the heart of our challenge is to reconstitute our sense of ability, and of intelligence.... When I arrived in LA about 9 years ago, I came across a policy statement, very well-intended, that said 'College begins in kindergarten.'  No it doesn't - it doesn't.... Kindergarten begins in kindergarten.... There's such competition now to get into kindergarten, to get into the right kindergarten, that people are being interviewed for it, at 3 - kids sitting in front of unimpressed panels with their resumes, flicking through saying, 'What, this is it?!  You've been around for 36 months, and this is it?!  You've achieved nothing!'....
     The other big issue is conformity.  We have built our education system on the model of fast food.... We have sold ourselves into a fast-food model of education, and it's impoverishing our spirits and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies.... It's about passion.  Often people are good at things they don't really care for.  It's about passion, and what excites our spirit and our energy, and if you're doing the thing that you love to do, that you're good at, time takes a different course entirely.... You know this.  If you're doing something you love, an hour feels like 5 minutes.  If you are doing something that doesn't resonate with your spirit, 5 minutes feels like an hour.  And the reason so many people are opting out of education is because it doesn't feed their spirit, it doesn't feed their energy or their passion.... We have to change from an industrial model to an agricultural model.  We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it's an organic process.  And you cannot predict the outcome of human development.  All you can do is, like a farmer, create the conditions under which they will flourish.... It's not about scaling a new solution; it's about creating a movement in education in which people develop their own solutions, but with external support based on a personalized curriculum...."
     (Closing with a quote from W.B. Yeats:) "'Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, and wrought with gold and silver light, of blue and the dim and the dark cloths, of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet.  But I, being poor, have only my dreams.  I have spread my dreams under your feet.  Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.'  And every day, every where, our children spread their dreams  beneath our feet, and we should tread softly."

And we should dream too.  I'm a big fan of what I call 'active daydreaming' - something along the lines of the Law of Attraction.  Dream big, and dream well, rather than not allowing yourself to dream for fear your dreams won't come true.


I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences....