Sir Ken Robinson on Education

Hearing Sir Ken Robinson talk reminded me of something we read in Free Culture.

Robinson focused a large fraction of his talk on education. All over the world, in each and every society, music and kinesthetic disciplines are overshadowed by other subjects. In our society and many others, the hierarchy places science, mathematics, and language at the top. Fine arts, music, and dance are quite minor, if present at all. If education's purpose is brain development, why then is the left hemisphere trained so much more than the right?

This really made me think of how backward this is. For example, many of us are interested in art. A great number of people out there are very skilled with their hands and have creative ideas to go along with their skill. But somewhere along the way, someone tells the artist to "get real" - with the chances of being a successful artist so slim, why not study more practical subjects? This I see as a problem. Yes, it is true that not many art students will become professionals. But think of this: how many science students will become scientists? Not many. I would imagine that hundreds of thousands of students face this. Kids should be encouraged to find their passion(s) and work on developing that.

At my high school, students had to complete four years of science to graduate. Does the girl who will someday be a real estate agent need to learn physics? Does a second grade teacher need calculus? Such advanced subjects help the professional no more than learning dance. And I'm not trying to say that calculus is bad or that dance is bad - each person has different interests and should be encouraged to practice their interests.

Our education system needs balance. In addition to the "core classes," students should be developing creativity. In Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig examines such a program in San Francisco. "Just Think!" is a program that trains kids in what is being called "media literacy." Two buses house high-quality digital video equipment. Each year, over thirty schools have the privilege to participate in Just Think! Its aim is "to make [kids] literate about the way media works, the way it's constructed, the way it's delivered, and the way people access it," according to Dave Yanofsky, Just Think!'s executive director. Because of this program, hundreds of kids get to practice making movies. Some skeptics might say that this is useless, since very few people ever make a movie. But the same can be said about studying Latin or science; it's not necessarily about the actual thing you are learning, but rather the learning process itself.

If we are trying to develop students through education, the process ought to be holistic. Sir Ken Robinson sounds like he understands this. It would be nice if school board members and principals could understand this as well.

- Jordan Morsberger