Monday, June 24, 2013

If Only...

A clip from Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the Learning Revolution!
To piggyback on his agricultural metaphor for education...Can you picture what a diverse, wondrous garden this type of framework would produce? What a dynamic, beautiful, and intriguing future to experience. If only each individual could flourish through the discovery and embrace of their own unique and distinctive God-given gifts. Unfortunately, those that find success in their talents, usually identify their passions and gifts somewhere other than school because the boxed curriculum, prevalent in today’s classroom, buries most characteristics that offer individuality.

Like I stated in my previous post, if our education system only fosters one type of intelligence, we are severely limiting the possible future for our kids and their capabilities. It is already evident that our world is transitioning into a time of innovation and creativity, while the industrial days are long gone. If only our schools reflected this.


Ken Robinson (guy in the video) has a great mind for rethinking the way we educate. In his book, The Element, Robinson suggests three principles for an education that allows students to flourish while experiencing their gifts: eliminate hierarchy of subjects (value every type of intelligence equally), create transdisciplinary curriculum (don’t separate subjects), and individualize education. This is a hard concept to visualize since the schooling I’ve experienced didn’t involve any of these characteristics. I'm working on what this realistically looks like because our kids deserve it, plus the possibilities are exciting!

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