Activity 4 - Comment on the Video "Changing Education Paradigms"

Here is the video about " Changing Education Paradigms"

I agree with Ken Robinson when he says that the current Educational System is based on what they did in the past. So, students are not encouraged, since the traditional topic of working hard, going to college and getting a good job is not valid any more. The worst is that students do not believe this old-fashioned theory at all.

I think that Robinson points out two key questions in relation to the Public Educational System. On the one hand, I believe that children should be taught in relation to the era we are living, according to the parameters of the 21^st century (i.e. globalisation, interrelation, etc.). On the other, children should be educated so as they have a cultural identity. By stating these two questions, Robinson means that the current educational model is based on interests of industrialism and the image of it. However, this theory is misplaced and fictitious.

Instead of a traditional deductive reasoning (based on the economic and the intellectual), I agree with Robinson when he claims that the Public Educational System should take a divergent viewpoint, since students would become more active, more motivated and their reasoning would improve as well. In a sense, schools destroy children’s creativity (i.e. the process of having original ideas), because their approach to learning is by repressing this capacity. Thus, although we all have this capacity when we are born, it deteriorates at school.

Another problem which affects children nowadays is the amount of different distracters they are exposed to. For instance, computers, ipods, iphones and so on have created a gap between students’ way of learning and their motivation. As they are so focused on computer games and new technological devices, they perceive education as something old-fashioned, boring and ordinary. In order to motivate students, Robinson proposes a kind of education that consists of learning by experiencing and enjoying the activity; in other words, by using the aesthetic approach. Although I think that the main problem is the students’ loss of sacrifice, I also believe that this way of teaching may involve and motivate students.

Finally, Robinson criticises the overuse of pills and drugs in children who suffer from ADHD. He mentions that students are unmotivated and, instead of changing the approach, doctors prescribe dangerous pills to them because they think students will get better. However, the use of these prescriptions is counterproductive. In here, there is another instance of how traditional learning is discriminator. That is, there are two types of students: academic pupils and non-academic students. Those pupils who are not motivated at all and who take pills could be as intelligent as the others, but they do not like the approach the Educational System is following (i.e. the intellectual model of the mind). Therefore, this model has caused a chaotic, unstable situation. Only by changing the route, students will see a purpose in going to school and in being educated.