Sir Ken Robinson and a Really Great Talk from TED

I wanted to include this TED talk here. It's got a lot of great points in it and Robinson explains a great deal. I really think he has hit the nail on the head. Robinson identifies the importance of tapping into and finding people's talents. Many people go through life not finding or utilizing their talents. Robinson sights the current format of schooling actually hinders many people from succeeding in their talents.

And high among them is education, because education, in a way, dislocates very many people from their natural talents. And human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep. You have to go looking for them, they're not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves.

I take this to mean that we as teachers should be trying to dig down and find out what the talents of our students are. It's not easy to find it and honestly, I've failed with many students but I have succeeded with many as well and seen them do very well. It's a struggle for sure and one that if you work too hard it can certainly drain you. Even small successes should be acknowledged.

In this next section Robinson begins to discuss the need for changes to the education system.

 What we need -- and the word's been used many times during the course of the past few days --is not evolution, but a revolution in education. This has to be transformed into something else.One of the real challenges is to innovate fundamentally in education. Innovation is hard because it means doing something that people don't find very easy, for the most part. It means challenging what we take for granted, things that we think are obvious. The great problem for reform or transformation is the tyranny of common sense; things that people think, "Well, it can't be done any other way because that's the way it's done." 

We've had the same format of education for the last two hundred or so years and nothing has changed really.  This is a serious issue, our society is considerably different than it used to be. School should reflect that change and reflect our society more accurately.

I won't go through the whole talk but he's certainly worth watching, listening to and thinking about. I don't agree with everything that's said but.... There's an awful lot of ideas here in these talks for everyone to think about. I hope that I encourage the talents of my students.

I would love to hear other people's comments about this talk and what they might like to see in education.