After watching Ken Robinson's TED.com video (Schools Kill Creativity) answer the following questions:
1. What has your education taught you?
2. What could the educational system do better?
3. If you could change something(s) specific about education what would it be?
4. Any other comments that you've thought about since watching the video.
If you would like to watch the video again click here.
Update: Here are 2 pictures of the board from today's discussion:
My education has taught me a lot more about how to memorize than about the world. Although in some classes I've been able to feel like I'm learning things that I really love, in most of my classes, I have felt like my time is completely wasted. My education has taught me that our education system wants us to know as much as we possibly can even if it is completely wasted in the end. Therefore I believe that our education system should be more focused on the individual instead of the masses. Although some things should be mandatory (like certain basic maths and sciences), I think there should be a lot more flexibility and a lot less mandatory classes. I think that students' grades should not be valued above the students themselves, and teachers should not be pressured to force so much information at students in one year. Although I understand that education systems are very complex and I am not an expert in understanding the needs of students, I believe that there are many things that schools do very wrongly that could just as easily be done a different, less stressful, and more valuable way.
ReplyDeleteI really loved the video, but one of the most striking points that he had was that degrees are almost useless nowadays. This is something that is becoming clear in our world, as students are literally forced into colleges even if it's not right for them, and are told that if they do not get a degree, they will not be successful in life. I believe that this is a horrible thing for our education system to be telling us. They need to be supporting who we are instead of forcing us into what they want us all to be. We can't all be scientists, engineers, doctors, professors, etc. We need to have a wide variety of people working a wide variety of jobs and pursuing careers that they want to pursue without shaming them for what they want to do with their life. And getting us all prepared for college should not be the focus of high school, it should be getting us prepared for life as well, and for whatever other jobs and careers we may want to pursue. And I can tell you one thing for sure: when my friends and I, who have planned to go to college and have been working ourselves up to college our entire lives and have been excited for the opportunity of higher learning, begin to think that maybe it isn't even worth the pain and maybe dropping out and giving up on it all would be better than experiencing any more of this, there is something seriously wrong with how we're being educated.
My education, thus far in my life has taught me how to temporarily memorize, pointless equations and other information, not pertinent to my future in the slightest. I do believe I have learned how to write and speak properly, because of my education, and I have gained some of the things I need to succeed in life, like how to write checks and how to balance a checkbook. I think the educational system should have more room for creativity, and less standardization, because we are not all the same, nor do we learn the same way. If I could change one thing about our educational system, I would add more options for arts, and in all schools Because even though we are fortunate enough to have arts, in some areas there is not enough funds, going towards them, and they are and should be considered just as important to our education. I agree with a lot of what Ken Robinson said in his video, about what are system is focused on and what we need to improve, because yes there are great things about our education system, but there is still a lot more room for improvement in it.
ReplyDeleteOur education has taught me to not be as creative but to be able to memorize material as quickly as I can, it has also taught me that it's not about what you know or if you know it but however how you can do on a standardized test. For example we've been in school for 12 years and we take the AC T to determine where we go to college and pretty much determines how we are going to live our life based off of one test that is standardized for everyone to take. If I could change one thing in our educational system it would have to be what time you start school, the average human brain doesn't fully activate until 8:30-9:00 in the morning. If I could change one specific thing in our educational system it would have to be that there's a lower level of requirements and people get to start training and stuff for their future instead of having to learn something that isn't valuable for your life
ReplyDeleteMy education has taught me many valuable things. Schools has been the key tool in teaching me how to socialize with my peers. School is where a majority of people make most of their friends. Also, almost every basic mathematical skill and literature term I have learned at some point in school. There are also some classes that I take that I will actually use later on in the future, such as Personal Finance.
ReplyDeleteI think the educational system focuses too much on grades and passing than it actually does on expanding the minds of the students. I think schools should focus more on teaching students how to be creative instead of learning just basic stuff. Although this would be very challenging, it would be cool if schools could somehow find a way to tailor their education to fit every student's individual needs.
If I could change one thing about education I would tell them to not make grades so important in the curriculum, and they should lower the standards that have to be met in each class. In most classes, there are so many standards that must be met. This means that the teacher has to skim over everything very quickly, and this means they can't go in depth on any topic. This can frustrate students, especially if they're more interested in a topic or want to go deeper. I think that the standards should have less material to cover so teachers don't just have to scratch the surface on every topic.
While watching the video, I really liked when he told the story about the dancer. He said that she couldn't sit still in school, and that her mother knew that they weren't fully connected with their daughter. When they finally put her in a dance academy, she completely blossomed and felt very included. He then explained that people in today's society would have just given her medicine and told her to be still. This kinda shows that authorities are starting to treat people with the same symptoms in the exact same way, when in reality everyone is wired differently.
To answer the first question I have been taught a lot by my education such as how to read how to write properly and how to do arithmetic. I have learned a lot in the education system about basic skills I need for the world as well as some that are more personal such as learning physics. I have also learned a lot about myself throughout my education as I learned what I am good at(math and reading) and what I am not good at(french). I also have learned how to be social and how to be able to talk to people through my education as I have had to work in groups and have group discussions through the education system.To answer question number 2one of the things i thinks the education system could do better is appealing to a wider variety of students because I think more and mote certain subjects alone are becoming emphasized. An example of this is that we have as many math teachers at independence as we do teachers in the various arts combined which just shows where our priorities lie. I think that if we were to offer a broader spectrum of classes for students we might see students succeed more often and like school better then they do right now. To answer the third question the one thing I would change about the education system would be that I would change the number of classes that you are required to take in high school and leave a lot more open to elective. I think this would help give kids a better idea of what they want to do and would help kids to get a better head start on what they want to do. In the end I think this would greatly improve the learning experience and help the education system too become much better as a whole.
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ReplyDeleteMy education has yet to teach me how I am going to be able to live my life correctly after high school. If you think about it, the only class we have all taken that emphasises on living in the world is Personal Finance. In English, I have noticed that it is the same content of grammar rules, but harder. In math, there are some references to taxes, but why do we learn pointless laws and theorems if we will never use them again in life? Unless you plan on being a math teacher or a mathematician. Science, once again, is like math, you learn about other laws and theorems that will only apply to you if you are going to become a certain type of scientist. History is another subject that is a "specific" career path. The public education system could start paying more attention to the education of special needs students. My aunt is a Special Ed. Teacher and she works in the public school system. She has noticed that, in the middle school she works at, the special needs students get no attention. So with this whole "no attention" thing going on, those students will never know how to socialize with others because they will be too afraid to try. I think that the system should really incorporate the special needs students with the "normal" students to get a full on experience. I also think we should be taught important information to help better our future. I would change the entire system to incorporate everyone and help better their future lives out of high school. This video was truly inspirational and informative. I think Sir Ken Robinson really got his message across in an entertaining way.
ReplyDeleteMy education has taught me that much like Jaime said, we've been told to memorize pointless informations that will probably never be helpful. And the life skills that we should be taught are overlooked most of the time. I've learned things years before some of my peers because of being in certain classes with certain teachers. An example was back in 4th, I was in a 4/5 split class with only a few 4th graders. All the 5th grade classes got together for math and you were divided up between the advanced math course and the standard. Well I was in the advanced one and I was the only 4th grader and I remember being able to pick up on the concepts way before everyone else and I would do my homework for the night while my teacher was lecturing. I became a tutor for that class.
ReplyDeleteIn my time as a student, I have watched the common core standards be completely redone for the class of 2015 and it irritates me. We're the class in WA who they started mandating us to take the state's standardized test in 3rd grade that they replaced in my 7th grade year with a completely new test. The education system needs to set their priorities and stop changing them midway through the year and stop requiring things that will never come in use. If it doesn't pertain to us later in life, then why do I need to know how to graph an inequality and be able to run a mile under 9 minutes?
If I could go and change one thing about our education system, I would do away with our standardized testing. Not only does it stress the students and teachers out, it's becoming a problem of schools making those huge portions of our grades. Standardized tests are just a snapshot of one day in a child's educational career. Friends of mine have shared stories of having really bad test anxiety. The idea of a test determining their future is absolutely terrifying to them. If the system got rid of these tests and focused more on effort in the class, then more students would stay in school and not drop out.
The video kept sparking more and more ideas in my head of what I think the educational system is getting wrong and how Robinson is correct on creativity is being pushed away in schools. We as students are like robots "downloading" the information into our brains and just copying word for word down onto a piece of paper. And this idea of "learning" needs to be fixed. It's not practical for some students, me included. In only a few classes can I do this type of studying. Government is one I really can't.
Academically speaking, I believe that I've learned a great deal of shallow and sundry information, but in terms of the nature of life and of myself, I feel that I've learned nothing. I believe this is because our educational system focuses solely on practicality within the working community; it doesn't encourage introspection or critical thinking, only the memorization of formulas and data. Book knowledge is not intellectualism, and I think that is something that our school system fails to understand.
ReplyDeleteIf I could change something specific about American education, I would redesign the AP system and the requirements for graduation. AP classes have evolved from an economic way to earn college credit into a prerequisite for admission into overly competitive universities. For students who are expected to take these rigorous courses, a new system needs to be put into play; a college-level load of homework combined with a seven-hour-per-day traditional school model begets unprecedented levels of mental stress and hindered productivity I, for one, work from the time I wake up in the morning to the time I go to sleep too late at night on assignments for classes I never wanted to take. Also, our inflexible graduation requirements are stifling individual intellectualism; as Robinson said, education is crushing creativity. Our school system stigmatizes individualism, and until this issue is ramified, students will not be able to reach their full creative potential.
My education has taught me a great deal of the absolute mathematics and sciences, it has taught and showed me about my love of music through out my six years of band, and has given me different tastes of different subjects. The problem with the educational system is that of the mandatory subjects that we learn. Will I agree that students need to be taught to read, comprehend, simple math, and some about our countries history, I do not feel that it will do any of us any good to learn about how to find the length of a flag pole based on its shadow or the half life of a certain element unless we are going into that career. If I could change something specific, I would take out the classes that are unnecessary to me personally and implement more in depth discussion of the topics that do apply to me. One thing that I have thought about since watching this video makes me wonder why the hierarchy of our education has landed the way that it has. I mean this in that the subjects that most (not all) students are passionate about are at the lowest while those that most of us don't like and dont care about are the highest. Now this clearly does not apply to everyone but I feel like it does to many and I think that our educational system needs to take a look at and reevaluate the levels of which we have the subjects ordered and maybe make some revisions.
ReplyDeleteEducation has taught me one thing that I'll remember. What I enjoy learning about and what I don't enjoy learning about. That's what I think education should be. It should give us a plethora of things to learn about and then let us choose what we want to learn. It is a waste of my time learning about math formulas and plays when I could be learning something about history. That's what high school has taught me: That I have a love for history. It hasn't taught me how to do useless math and pointless annotating because once i get finished with that class I am going to forget what I learned. Like I said that is a waste of time for me and for the teacher of that class. Also, I don't believe that high school should have such an importance on grades. I know right now Dr. Looney is pushing grades so hard and taking away honors classes because he is trying to make himself look good. He is using Williamson County as a stepping stone to get a position of higher power and that isn't fair to us or the teachers or anyone he is the boss of. He is only involved because he has an incentive to and that needs to change.
ReplyDeleteMy education has taught memany things. Of course the basics of life and education, but it had also taught me life skills. For example, I have always turned my work in on time and I am never late to anything. I personally hat our education system. There are so many classes I wish I could have taken in high sschool that had to be put aside because I had to learn about the area of a circle in geomentry. I understand that there are necessary things that we must learn in order to be somewhat intellegent human beings, but I am a kid, I want to take fun classes! If I could change our education system, I would burn common core because I hate it. I dont want to be told what I have to learn, I want to learn what I want to learn. I would also give students more freedom when choosing their high school classes. Yes, you would have to take classes, but all on things that you want to learn about.
ReplyDeleteEducation has taught me to love knowledge and to want more of it. I am very lucky to have the education I have been given and often I take it far too lightly. Without education I would be missing out on some of the greatest things life has to offer! That being said there are still many flaws that are not allowing students to receive the full rewards of education. Creativity is abundant in children but frequently it disappears as soon as middle school. I think this is because as soon as potential is found in a child, they are encouraged to lean towards that path and do not get to explore the rest of their gifts. The education system tries to isolate the most developed skills in a student and then pushes the student towards that field of knowledge. I believe a student should be given the opportunity to dive into all different paths and decide for themselves what they ought to be learning. I understand that some things must be taught, and students should not be able to choose what to learn solely based on what they like, because they might just be lazy. But once the student begins to take serious interest in something they should be able to fully pursue it without being brought down by things they couldn't care less about simply because it may help their job outlook when they are on their own. There should be less learning done in classrooms, students' skills should be honed in interactive settings where they can develop independent research skills, which will translate into more passionate students who will crave knowledge even outside a classroom.
ReplyDeleteEducation has taught me a lot of important things, like basic grammar, math, history, ect. Im happy with the education I have received and I also like the schools I've gone to. However, I dislike the way we are taught. I believe some people learn differently from others. Some people, like me, need a picture to learn. I struggle when figuring out how things relate by just reading a definition. Sometimes i need to draw a picture in my notes to help me understand what I'm learning. There are also students who learn better by reading things, and those who can learn by just listening. I don't believe our school system has a diverse way of teaching. I also believe, like Robinson said, we need more creativity in our schools. Its almost like once you leave elementary school you no longer do creative things in class. I remember having to go to an art class, gym class, and a music class every week. This schedule was designed to give us students a little taste of everything and to allow us to try different things.
ReplyDeleteeducation i feel has taught how to fit in with the crowed and to not be the odd one out, as in talking about going to school. education has also taught me the basics of each subject. also how to follow a rubric and steps to create or get to where i want to go. the education system could make more of the project to be whatever you want it to be. the teacher should give you the subject and you explain it the way you feel is right so you can be creative as in what the ted video was talking about with creativity. the education system needs to leave the creative part to the student and not try and minimize the creativity that is held in each and every person. that is one thing i would change about the education system now. it would be a more creative self dependent schooling. instead of having everything laid out is a neat and direct format their would be just the main subject and then left up to the student to decide how to handle it. creativity i think is a very important part of schooling and should be better appreciated.
ReplyDeleteEducation has taught me that if you don't have the right grades your not good enough. We could have the most creative minds but if we don't have the grades that our teachers or administration expects from us were not living up to their expectations. But scores, that's really all that matters in education. Its about which school is better than the other. I would change how non-creative lessons and classes in regular aren't creative. When do you wake up in the morning excited and looking forward to school? Probably when its a home football game or something that doesn't involve shoving your nose in a book. Education is not fun anymore. Like Phillips said kids use to be excited about school but as we got old it went away. Even some teachers don't like the way County or State leaders are making them teacher. There's so many rules, testings, placement scores and being confined in the same room everyday how are we suppose to be creative.With Benchmarks, they want you to score so high they started making it a big part of your grade in that class.
ReplyDeleteRead some of the above... you are late if posting after this!!!
ReplyDeleteEducation has taught me that you have to be as good as someone else's standard even if you have never been good at that subject or have never wanted to do that. The education system is based off of a standard when it should be based on what the individual wants to do when they are older. Yes I think we should take math and english but only to the extent that we will need it in our future. If someone wants to be an artist they should not be required to take 4 years of math in high school.
ReplyDeleteGenerally my education has taught me that if I want something done right? Then I need to do it myself. School has also taught me that school is exactly what you make of it for yourself, meaning if you want to have a good experience? That you have the control to make it that way. I think that schools need to realize the potency of imagination and creativity in the learning environment and reinforce this in schools everywhere. I believe it is of very high importance and will, in the long run, will benefit people around the world.
ReplyDeleteThe educational system I've grown up in has taught me elementary skills that everyone should know, but beyond that I don't think I've learned many useful things at all. To be quite blunt, from sixth grade onward, I haven't given a crap about school. I don't see that changing anytime soon, either. This is because the educational system is absolutely HORRIBLE at making use of its time. The modern educational system does not care if you don't want to become a scientist. Chemistry will be shoved down your throat, and no complaints, please. The modern educational system wants you to learn about the holocaust 8 years straight, to the point of reciting facts about it from memory with the significance of such an atrocity nearly lost by that point. The educational system of today wastes so much time and effort and money trying to get kids to learn things they don't care about. Not only so, but they fail to realize that these kids CAN'T be taught to care about these things unless they have a true passion for them. Their time would be better spent interviewing each and every student (Yes, I realize that takes a long time) to see what kinds of things they're interested in. They should then have paths set out for each kind of person. Everyone should be represented. Artists, athletes, future teachers, musicians, scientists, philosophers, historians, etc. EVERYONE can play a part in society, but the modern education system makes it so that we're discouraged from our interests. "You won't make any money doing something like that!" And people laugh at your "silly" aspirations. If I'm making enough money to survive and provide for my family while doing something that I love, isn't that all I need? You'd be an idiot for telling me I need to make a six figure salary. I don't care. And you might be surprised by how many other people out there don't care about making the big bucks either. I think I made it pretty clear what I'd like to change about the modern educational system. The reason we have so many slackers and dispassionate people in careers they shouldn't be working in is because we haven't allowed their passion any room in this world. Passion is what brought the states together. People didn't ever get anything good in the world just because they went to college and got this or that degree in macroeconomics. They got things done because they were passionate about what they were doing. Passion, as simple as it may seem, is the one thing this system of "education" fails to understand.
ReplyDeleteMy education has taught me that modern day U.S. is working inefficiently. It also has taught me math, science, English, social studies, and etc. Mainly how the school systems are but one inefficient organ in the vast body of America. It is just a place where kids go to get knowledge dumped on for about 13 mandatory years of your life. Most of this information is not really needed and is thus not going to resonate in youth very much. What schools do do well is make us good standardized test takers. The only problem is that most people will not need to be good standardized test takers later in life. So what should schools be good at? They should be good at finding a persons aspiration. They should promote what the students are interested in. The school system makes people learn things they will never use in their personal aspiration. There should be more job classes and less standardized test classes. What I mean by this is there should be more crafting classes where one class could be about lock smiting and building wooden creations or building am airplane. In that sense then there should be less honors chemistry and less boring writing English essays. Another unimportant class is gym 2. Like it is a wasted semester. And even further life time wellness is kind of a waste of time for some. Not to be rude but only people who need to get in shape need that class or if they have a problem with hurting their health in any way that that class teaches you not to do. School should also make more U.S. history classes less standardize testable and more patriotic and make it where you will want to like our country more. Those classes are just about facts and not enough passion for your own country. The school system is supposedly leave no child behind, but all this school system does do is leave the free thinking creative aspiring people and change them into memorizing standard test takers.
ReplyDelete1) My education has taught me to be responsible with due dates (yes I see the irony in this, I'm SORRY.. It has also taught me to be reliable and trustworthy through essays, tests and quizzes. It has taught me that you have to work harder to make better grades, or in the real world, more money (AP and Honors courses) I have also learned how to be social without risking my grades and how to keep up with life in general while having a job.
ReplyDelete2) I think that we should offer more CTE courses. Things that better prepare us for our future and get us ready for the real world. I know that almost 100% of parents, when asked to do 8th grade or lower math problems, fail miserably and feel humiliated. Most of the things we "learn" here are only memorized to be regurgitated at a later date and then to be forgotten about the next week. We should be teaching life skills such as life management, credit balancing, 401K's, refinancing a loan, and COMMON SENSE skills here.
3) The fact that we are only asked to memorize something. We should be doing more CTE courses rather than geometry and trig.
4) I loved watching this video. We watched something like it in AP Psych and it really makes you think.
1. My education has taught me the basic knowledge I need to know for my further decisions in life, but has taken away a lot. I feel as if I have been desensitized and demoralized not only from our educators, but from my peers.
ReplyDelete2. The educational system would be better if it offered things we wanted to learn or do, like woodshop, auto shop, pools, and other things schools used to have.
3. I would change the Physical education part by adding a pool and making it required to take at least two years of pe. also I would add a woodshop, mechanic shop, and other things that we will always use in life.
4. nothing
Everything prior has been entered into grades...
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