Blog Post # 10

One of the greatest things we can learn from Sir Ken Robinson is that teaching needs to be more student centric, in that their passions and talents are great tools to make learning more engaging. I can identify with the two types of people he mentioned: Those who don't enjoy what they and those who love what they do, as I was one of the fore, but now I much the latter. I've always wanted to teach, but I was in the linear world where I always made good money, but I hated what I was doing. I would use other passions and talents, like martial arts and amateur astronomy, to fill the gaping hole I felt in my life. I actually saw what Sir Robinson described as the "tyranny of common sense," in action with many of my co-workers, because they had already accepted their fate, and this can be a killer of a person's talents and passions. Likely, because of the way they were educated, they never were taught to think outside the box or search for the things they loved to do of circumstances. It has taken me over 30 years after graduating from high school to finally pursue my passion of being an educator, but I always heard that voice in the back of my saying, "If you keep teaching in your heart; you will keep teaching in your mind," so I never gave up. Until learning about the revolution in education through EDM310, I had never knew that I was "supposed" to be groomed to do exactly what I was doing all those years. I must admit that the revolutionary ideas of EDM310 are helping me to see where I can make my dream of being a teacher more productive and engaging for my future students. When Sir Robinson stated, "Schumann communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability," all I could think about were those wasted hours of classroom time where one of my teachers would have simply asked me, "What is your passion in life?" The fact is, they didn't much care about my passions, and I understand this because perhaps they weren't doing what their passion's were.

Reformers like Sir Robinson are seen as revolutionary in the moment, but considering his age and others I know, they had a voice out there that shook things up a little that got them set on their current paths. In that sense, someone taught them how to see education for what its failures are. As he stated, we've been sold into the fast food version of education, and it is time to turn away from something we know is dangerous to our health and welfare. Joining revolutions tend to be dangerous, and when talking about doing that with education, it is sometimes fatal, but that is exactly why I will join this revolution. It needs warriors that will reach into a students' curious mind, massage it with thoughts and ideas, distill as many passions from it as is possible, get it to engage its true potential, and set it free in the world to innovate it. As Sir Robinson mentioned, education has to be re-thought out to be something that is personalized to the students' interests. If we do that, think of all the innovations the world will experience as a result of our children being able to go after their dreams. I guess I was born to be a rebel, because I get EDM310 and all the great innovators that are connected with it. I've added another video by Sir Ken Robinson, Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley, for your consideration, since I liked how it added onto the video for the class. Vive la Education Revolution!



Sources: TED Talks, Ken Robinson, and Anonymous Art of Revolution.